Elfyn Evans identifies in which rallies he lost his chances to clinch his maiden title in World Rally Championship in 2023 saying that Rally de Portugal was quite damaging for him.
The Welshman was the only rival who was closest to Kalle Rovanpera at the end of Acropolis Rally as their gap was at 31 points before the start of Central European Rally. He was third overall at CER until the time he crashed in Stage 11 which means that the only thing that Rovanpera should do was to get to the finish line last weekend, therefore he slowed down his pace and finished second overall. Despite Rovanpera's crash in Finland, Evans had to retire from Rally de Portugal after his accident in SS7 and scored zero points there as Toyota's mechanics were not able to fix his Yaris for the rest of that weekend. In addition to that, Rally Italia Sardegna and Safari Rally also affected his chances to get a better result on these two events as he faced mechanical issues with his car resulting in dropping time there. With one round remaining until the season finale, Evans and Thierry Neuville will fight for the second place of this year's championship as their gap is only at seven points in favor of the Toyota driver.
"I think Portugal was quite damaging", Evans said.
"A big crash there, it was quite like a regrettable one in a way.
"You can be brave or you can be stupid brave, and that was a bit over the top brave.
"Obviously I paid quite a big price for that, and it sort of affected a bit heading into Sardinia.
"Then Kenya even a little bit also.
"I was a bit like too conservative against the guys who had already started to build some momentum.
"So yeah, like any season, everybody has their ups and downs".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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