Evans's Finland crash was caused by understeer, but will not give up his title fight yet

Elfyn Evans reveals the real reason behind his crash in Stage 19 of Rally Finland saying that his car reacted in the rut than the speed, but he will continue fighting for this year's championship despite the fact that stayed even behind on the standings.

The Welshman started Rally Finland in a positive way as he was fighting with Kalle Rovanpera and Sebastien Ogier for the lead until Stage 12 where Evans's car suffered from transmission issues resulting in completing his Saturday morning in eighth place. The things worsened for him as he received a 160-second time penalty for leaving the midday service with a 16-minute delay due to the fact that his mechanics had to change some parts on the exhaust system apart from the damaged driveshaft. Toyota decided to retire his car at the end of the final Saturday stage and restarted under the SuperRally regulations on Sunday with the view of collecting points from Powerstage and from SuperSunday as he was outside the top ten at the Saturday classification. However, he went off the road just 200 meters into Stage 19, which was the penultimate stage of Rally Finland, and did not score any point for his championship fight while Sebastien Ogier moved up to the second place on the standings and Ott Tanak is ahead of Evans for five points at third position. Four rounds remaining until the end of the 2024 WRC season with Thierry Neuville extending further his lead to 166 points at the end of Rally Finland and leaving Evans behind for 36 points.

"Unfortunately we had an accident right at the beginning of the penultimate stage", Evans said. 

"I’d managed the corner OK on the first pass, but I had a bit of understeer in the ruts the second time around and ran out of road. 

"We knew it was a tricky corner, but it was more down to the way the car reacted in the rut than the speed. 

"It was a costly mistake on my part and a weekend that went from bad to worse – but this is motorsport and these things happen. 

"There are four rounds to go in the championship and everything is still open, so we’ll continue to give our all until the very end".

Photo Credits: Toyota