Elfyn Evans believes Toyota team-mate and World Rally Championship title rival Oliver Solberg was “unlucky” to retire from second place at last week’s Rally Islas Canarias.
Solberg had steadily been closing the deficit to rally leader Sébastien Ogier, narrowing the champion’s lead to just 2.2 seconds with just two stages to go.
But almost halfway onto SS17 of 18, Solberg misjudged a crest, ran wide into some Armco and ripped the front-left wheel off his Toyota.
Because he retired on Sunday, he left Gran Canaria empty handed without the chance to score any bonus points from either Super Sunday or the powerstage.
Evans, who has now retaken the championship lead from team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, is 33 points clear of Solberg as a result, having moved into the second place in Canarias that Solberg vacated.
“The conditions were difficult and tricky at the end of the day, and as part of the sport these things do happen,” Evans told DirtFish.
“You have to keep pushing, you have to keep trying to get anything you can. OK Oliver was unlucky today. It happens to all of us at some point during these events. Today wasn’t his day unfortunately and we benefited.”
Victor Ogier was sad to see Solberg exit the contest, but did highlight at the end of the stage that although speed is important in rallying, finishing is even more so.
Ogier told DirtFish: “For sure it will be a little bit of a tough moment mentally for him, but also out of this situation you have to learn and, you know, he’s still very young, so that’s a positive for him.
“And the very positive [thing] as well is mistakes are part of the game and it’s better to be fast and do mistakes than the opposite. He still has a great future in this sport.
“So, yeah, he will not enjoy the following days now, I’m pretty sure. But the good news is Portugal is coming soon, so he will have the chance to focus on something new very quickly.”
Toyota’s deputy team principal Juha Kankkunen agreed with Ogier’s view that it’s better to be fast and make mistakes than have no natural speed. However he feels Solberg would benefit from a more tactical approach to events.
“I mean, he’s fast, definitely,” Kankkunen told DirtFish. “There is no question about that. And he just needs to think a little bit more you know the rallies and tactics and get everything sorted and no, he will be OK. There is no question about that but he needs a bit of time and some kilometers as well.
Asked what he would do in Solberg’s position – chase Ogier or bank the points – the four-time world champion added: “Good question. Difficult to say. If I would be there, I would be probably second.
“If I do my best, the stage works and I know the car is fast enough, you can’t just change yourself to the aeroplane, to make some miracle you know. So just try to keep it the same speed and think about the whole rally, not just one stage or something like that.”
