Evans does not feel fully at home inside his Yaris

Elfyn Evans believes that the speed is still missing and does not feel fully comfortable inside his Yaris while he has been very disappointed with how the things went in Greece.

The Welshman did not have an easy weekend in Greece as he was struggling since the beginning of Acropolis Rally. In Stage 1, he stopped to change a wheel 15.1 m into SS1 while he reported some issues with his Yaris which were related to the turbocharger resulting in dropping outside the top 50 at the end of Friday morning. The Toyota mechanics managed to repair his car for the second loop of Friday where he completed it without any problems. Evans managed to climb to 13th place at the end of Stage 10, but disaster happened in Stage 11 as he clipped a cut in a slow hairpin and rolled his Yaris 16.8 Km into SS11. The spectators helped him and Scott Martin to turn their car upside down and they managed to move again, but they stopped 20.1 Km into SS11 in order to let Sebastien Ogier pass. Their car was heavily damaged and the windscreen was cracked after their roll while Toyota decided to retire the car #33 just one hour before the start of the superspecial stage which was held on Saturday night. He restarted under the SuperRally regulations on Sunday and finished 18th, but he lost more ground compared to his title rivals as he remains fourth with 140 points and is behind the championship leader Thierry Neuville for 52 points. Finally, it must be mentioned that he scored only eight points in Greece which came from his third place on SuperSunday standings and from his third-second fastest time in Powerstage.

"After a difficult weekend, Sunday didn’t go as well as we would have liked", Evans said. 

"Clearly, the speed is still missing unfortunately. 

"In some sections and moments we were still performing OK, but I didn't feel fully at home to really push with no worries. 

"I was probably too keen to finish cleanly after what’s been a difficult few days. 

"It’s been a big disappointment lately, things have not been going well and we need to get back on the right track. 

"We have some work to do and we’ll look to start again fresh in the next event".

Photo Credits: Toyota