Evans about his retirement and his time penalty at Rally Sweden

Elfyn Evans reveals that his retirement from Rally Sweden was due to hybrid issues and not to the damage his car had after his impact on the first Sunday stage.

The Welsh driver was forced to retire at the end of the first stage of the final day of Rally Sweden as he faced some hybrid issues with his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.

In that stage, he clouted a snow bank at high speed and pulled over his car as it was stuck on snow. 

However, he managed to get going again and to get to the finish control of Stage 14 after all WRC drivers having completed this stage, but he was forced to retire before the start of the next one stage due to radiator damage.

But before that retirement, Evans was given a 10-second time penalty at the end of Saturday as he did not follow the right direction for the stop control in Stage 13 due to the fact that he touched a snow bank and did a 360. 

"Everything was going okay in the stage but on a long left hander we aggressively lost the rear end and it sort of snapped and unfortunately I wasn’t able to bring it back", Evans said.

"We were able to continue but then we had to stop to make some repairs in the stage. 

"We managed to get going again but unfortunately we didn’t have the hybrid lights active and we couldn’t get them active, and we had to stop for that reason".

Finally, Evans reflected on his time penalty at the end of Saturday: "I don’t feel it’s quite correct.

"We already lost out, we lost like over second almost two seconds in the last corner anyway, so the assumption I gained time is not correct because after I hit the snowbank it took a long time to cross the finish line. 

"The event afterwards, this is the bit I’m at a loss. 

"I discussed with Scott Martin and I had the option to fly over the snowbank and arrive at the stop control, but there all the media is standing. 

"Basically we are on the same road but there is this artificial snowbank that is out there to create the spectator stage at the end.

"Rather than put anyone in danger we continued to the stop control albeit slightly to the side of it facing the same direction and on the same piece of tarmac. 

"We thought, in the light of safety and not getting stuck on top of the snowbank or risk blocking the stage that it was the only option from a safety point of view".

Source: Motorsport.com

Photo Credits: Toyota