Marmaris (Turkey) (AFP)
Welshman Elfyn Evans (Toyota) won the rally in Turkey on Sunday ahead of Thierry Neuville and Sébastien Loeb (Hyundai) and takes the lead of the World Championship (WRC) after the retirement of Sébastien Ogier (Toyota).
"It was a tough weekend," responded Evans, who now has three WRC wins on the clock.
"I tried to ride well and stay in the middle of the road, it was the right solution. I am aware that I have been a bit lucky and I don't like inheriting the place of others, of this way, but that's the very nature of Rally Turkey. "
It's the second win this season for Evans, after Sweden in February.
It allows him to be 18 points ahead of Ogier two rounds from the end of this 2020 campaign interrupted and shortened by the coronavirus pandemic.
Evans took advantage, among other racing incidents, of a puncture and then a major mechanical failure on the Toyota of Ogier on Sunday morning.
"It's a disaster, it's not our weekend," Ogier summed up on his Twitter account.
A puncture in Cetibeli (SS9, 38 km), the longest and most feared special of the rally, initially cost Ogier nearly a minute early in the morning.
As Thierry Neuville and Sébastien Loeb also had a puncture on Turkish stones, in this same special, Evans took the lead.
The Welshman was able to start the last loop of two specials with a nice margin of safety over his rivals: 42 seconds ahead of Neuville, 46 over Ogier and 51 over Loeb, all of whom were aiming for a place on the podium.
The Toyota of Ogier immobilized in SS11 in a cloud of smoke, Evans then ensured to win this rally which he had missed last year because of a back injury.
His first victory dates back to 2017, in Great Britain, and he has already made 90 WRC starts, accumulating a lot of experience.
- Loeb back on the podium -
The final Power Stage (SS12) allowed Neuville to take five bonus points in the championship and his teammate Ott Tänak, victim of a steering problem on Saturday, to take four to preserve the suspense in the race for the world title. .
"I think we would have deserved to take more points this weekend, but it still feels good to get back on the podium", reacted Neuville, happy with his performance and the fact that "the car was going really well , after some changes on Saturday afternoon ".
"We were one of the unlucky crews who had a puncture in the first stage, which prevented us from securing the victory. But with the five points in the Power Stage, we can say that we did the maximum," added the Belgian.
Loeb and his loyal co-driver Daniel Elena, very effective on social networks, had not been on a WRC podium since their 3rd place in Rally Chile last year.
They were fighting for second place when they had a puncture in SS9, like many others.
“It was a tough day and the first special this morning was a bit like a lottery, except we didn't have the right numbers. There was a lot of dust so I was careful. When we had a puncture, it didn't We only had ten pages of notes left so we decided to go to the end of the stage, but I lost the tire completely so I had to slow down a lot ".
Everything will therefore be played out on the slopes of Sardinia in October, then in Belgium in November, on small roads around Ypres.
Between Evans and Ogier for the drivers 'title, but also between Toyota and Hyundai for the constructors' title, the fight will be tough.
As in Turkey.
© 2020 AFP