Rally Croatia: Evans cruises to WRC victory in final day
23rd April 2023Toyota’s Elfyn Evans has cruised to his first World Rally Championship victory since Rally Finland in 2021, ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tänak.
How the day unfolded…
Evans remained the rally leader 25.4 seconds ahead of second-placed Ott Tänak, after Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville retired on Saturday morning. Despite Tanak’s best efforts in the early stages, Evans kept his Estonian rival at bay with as much as 30 seconds in hand after the opening stage on Sunday: SS17.
Ahead of the Wolf Power Stage, Tänak cut the gap down marginally but Evans still had a comfortable gap ahead of his closest challenger with 28.1 seconds separating the Welshman from the Estonian.
The established gap was enough for Evans to cruise to victory without the worry of being toppled from the top spot with 27 seconds to spare over Ford’s Estonian driver.
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi looked to have third place wrapped up as he stood in the position with no one for company. After the Wolf Power Stage, the Finnish driver finished on the podium, in third, with a comfortable gap in both directions, Lappi trailed 31.6 seconds behind Tanak yet he had 27.3 seconds in hand over Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera.
Even though Rovanpera was out of podium contention, in fourth place, the defending world champion still secured two stage wins on the final day, in SS17 and SS19, to move ahead of his teammate Sebastian Ogier who was demoted down to fifth.
In a fairly quiet rally for Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, the Japanese driver rounded out the Toyota’s with his sixth-place finish, nearly one minute behind Ogier.
M-Sport Ford’s Pierre-Louis Loubet rounded out the WRC runners within the top 10 but the Frenchman suffered with issues throughout the final day of running. Firstly, Loubet couldn’t get his Puma into ‘stage mode’ on SS17 but the Frenchman collided with something mid-stage, on SS18, which bent his steering.
As a result of his compounded problems, the French Ford driver started to bleed time throughout the final day of running. Loubet ultimately finished the day over four minutes behind the rally winner.
After Neuville’s retirement on Saturday, the Belgian rejoined the event and opened up the road albeit down in P41 of the total running order, including the junior categories. On his return to the rally, the Belgian was experimenting with different set-ups as he closed SS17 as the slowest driver but he managed to change that around to put in the fastest time on the board in the next stage.
Despite the set-up experiments, Neuville still managed to go on and secure two stage wins on the final day: SS18 and SS20 (Wolf Power Stage). In the end, Neuville could only recover to 33rd in the overall standings.
Podium:
- Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin, Toyota
- Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja, M-Sport Ford
- Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferm, Hyundai
That’s all for the article; Rally Croatia: Evans cruises to WRC victory in final day
What has been your favourite moment of the WRC Rally Croatia weekend? Let us know in the comments!
Read more WRC here:
- Rally Croatia: Evans leads day two as Neuville retires
- Hyundai dress in Irish colours for WRC tribute to Craig Breen
- WRC Rally Croatia Preview: Hyundai to compete in honour of Craig Breen
- Craig Breen dies in pre-event crash ahead of Rally Croatia
- Ogier takes control of Rally Mexico as Lappi crashes out on Saturday
- Rally Mexico: Lappi takes over as Ogier trails just behind
Give us a follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with the latest news from the world of Motorsport! You can also support us on Patreon!
Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
