Elfyn Evans endured a heartbreaking Rally Chile, losing over two minutes due to a puncture on the penultimate stage. The incident dropped him from second to fifth and tightened the championship battle.
Starting first on the road, Evans knew the gravel rally would be tough. However, everything was going according to plan until the fateful moment. "Everything was going well today. This morning, everything went pretty much exactly to plan and the car felt quite good. Then, all of a sudden, I felt something happen at the front-left," Evans recounted.
To make matters worse, the tyre pressure monitoring system failed to alert him. "Normally we have a tyre-pressure monitoring system, but for some reason, at that moment it happened to be reading the spare tyre. So we didn't get any warning from it." Evans was left clueless about the puncture's location: "I have no idea where it happened, though."
The puncture forced Evans to change the tyre mid-stage, a costly stop that ruined his chances. "This is difficult. It feels pretty harsh at the moment. Of course, others had punctures as well, but perhaps in slightly luckier places. As I understand it, the drivers who had punctures this morning only got them right near the end of the second stage, so naturally they lost very little time," he said. "But that's how it is. Things looked to be going pretty well for us today, but sometimes they just don't go your way."
Evans found some consolation by taking four points from the Power Stage. "I think you know we've been saving a little bit by that. Obviously, it was a great performance from Oliver. They had a really strong weekend, so they are definitely in the fight now as well," he added. Oliver Solberg won the rally, his second victory of the season, and was fastest on the final stage.
The championship standings have tightened. Evans leads by 17 points over teammate Sami Pajari, who moved ahead of him into fourth in Chile. Solberg is now third, 22 points behind. "We're still in a pretty good position, though, and we'll keep fighting," Evans asserted.
Rally Chile served as a stark reminder of how quickly fortunes can change in rallying. Evans must regroup quickly to keep his title hopes alive. The battle within Toyota is intensifying, and every point will count.
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