Toyota technical director Tom Fowler has confirmed Elfyn Evans’s Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 suffered no engine issues at this morning’s Safari Rally Kenya shakedown stage.
The Welshman stopped on his fourth run at the Sleeping Warrior test, with the #33 Yaris then towed to service.
Evans explained to DirtFish: “It was only a precaution, basically, to tow the car back because there was a small, let’s say, strange noise from the engine, just a little misfire on the way back. So they don’t think it’s anything major, but we have to investigate.
Having inspected the car, Fowler told DirtFish: “Elfyn was obviously first into shakedown as championship leader and first into the fesh-fesh that was deeper than everybody expected.
“The engine bay was full of fesh-fesh and we cleaned it out at remote service – but that’s a remote service. We didn’t have the full capability to do as thorough job as we would back in the main service.
“The noise came from that fesh-fesh. If he’d have been in the rally, he would have kept going, but in shakedown it’s sensible to stop as a precaution and that’s exactly what it was. Had we not had the car towed in, nobody would have been any the wiser.”
