Elfyn Evans is talking about the reason why he lost time on the last two stages of Rally Mexico, but he reveals that he feels more comfortable with his Toyota Yaris.
The Welshman was in second place overall after Esapekka Lappi's retirement on Saturday and was fighting against Thierry Neuville on Sunday for the second position of the podium. Evans managed to increase his gap to 5,8 seconds over his rival at the end of Otates, which was the longest stage of the rally, but Neuville said after that stage that the first one might carry a suspension damage. In the penultimate stage of Sunday, Evans dropped time in comparison with Neuville, therefore their margin decreased to 2,7 seconds before PS. In addition to that, the Toyota driver managed to make some repairs to the damaged bent steering arm, but it was not enough for him to keep his place as Neuville was faster than him in Powerstage for 3,1 seconds meaning that eventually he dropped third and finished just four tenths of a second behind the Belgian.
"Two or three kilometers before the end of Otates, we had some sort of bad hole in a braking zone", Evans said.
"We picked up some suspension arm damage and we had to brace it as best as we could at the end of the stage.
"Obviously we couldn’t be as aggressive as we normally would be into any aggressive bumps dips or jumps, we had to take an edge off and that cost us the seconds we needed to hang on.
"It’s definitely moving in the right direction.
"The driving is better suited to the car and I feel the set-up has come to me also.
"There is still work today of course, but it’s moving in the right direction".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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