Having led Rally Argentina for two full days, Elfyn Evans and Daniel Barritt were deprived of a maiden FIA World Rally Championship victory by the smallest of margins. They missed out the win by a mere 0.7 seconds.
Starting the last day with an 11.5 second advantage, Evans was in a relaxed and confident mood but the rally gods were to have other ideas.
Encountering a brake issue through the opening speed test, the Welshman did well to lose just 2.5 seconds to a chasing Thierry Neuville. On the second stage however, an ALS issue would see his nine second advantage transformed to just 0.6 seconds.
The Power Stage would decide the outcome of the rally and Evans wasn’t going to give up without a fight. Pushing hard behind the wheel of his DMACK-shod Fiesta, the Welshman gave it everything and was 3.1 seconds up on Neuville at the mid-point split.
But as the dramatic stage continued, Evans started to lose traction in the rear and had to forgo victory by the smallest and cruellest of margins.
Despite the initial disappointment, Elfyn will take confidence from last weekend’s event. When everything was working well, the Welshman secured more stage victories than any other driver.
“We’ve got mixed emotions at the end of this one. It’s obviously disappointing to have missed out on victory by such a fine margin. But it was definitely a rally of two halves”, Elfyn Evans said.
“Thierry had his own problems on Friday whilst we had a really good day and were able to establish a fairly reasonable lead. But it was a case of role reversal over the next two days.”
Elfyn Evans: “We just need to make sure that we learn from this weekend and come back stronger”
“Thierry drove really well and no one can take that away from him. But we had a fair amount of problems – some self-inflicted and some not. To be honest, we didn’t have a clean run since the opening stage on Saturday morning. So it was a big push to keep the battle so close.”
“It’s a long story and I could probably write a list as long as my arm for why we didn’t manage to make it stick this weekend. But all credit to Thierry. He’s driven really well. And from our side there are still a lot of positives that we can take away.
“When everything was working well, our speed was really strong. We just need to make sure that we learn from this weekend and come back stronger.”
