Thierry Neuville says that Elfyn Evans had big guts for having continued going flat out despite his problem on Sunday in Mexico and fighting until the end of the rally.
After Esapekka Lappi retirements on the third day of Rally Mexico, Elfyn Evans climbed to second overall and had to defend his place over Thierry Neuville on Sunday as their gap was at 4,3 seconds at the end of Saturday. The Belgian set the fastest time on the opening stage of Sunday, but Evans managed to beat his rival by 1,7 seconds in Otates, which was the longest stage of the rally, therefore their margin was at 5,8 seconds with two stages to go. However, Neuville said at the end of that stage that Evans might carry a suspension damage which was true as WRC+ confirmed that he made some repairs to a nursing bent steering arm before the start of the Powerstage. In fact, the Toyota driver was slower than Neuville by 3,1 seconds on the penultimate stage of Rally Mexico which means that their gap was reduced to 2,7 seconds. In Powerstage, Evans dropped 3,1 seconds in comparison with Neuville who was the third fastest driver there, so the last one climbed to second place overall and finished 0,4 seconds ahead of Evans.
"When I saw that he was still flat out, I said that this guy really has big balls", Neuville said.
"The arm was broken and he fixed it with some masking and some tie wraps.
"I found out at the end that he wasn’t so confident.
"But, if I had been in the same position, you need to play with your luck and he did it and it worked well and he took the fight until the end".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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