Evans evades Neuville’s challenge after third day of WRC Rally Finland
6th August 2023Toyota’s Elfyn Evans remains out ahead of Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville as the Welshman has eeked out a 32.1-second lead over his Belgian rival in Rally Finland.
Evans remains the Rally Finland leader after Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera crashed out on Friday afternoon. The Welshman secured seven of eight stage wins across Saturday, he was only beaten by fellow teammate, Takamoto Katsuta on the final stage of the day.
This has allowed the #33 Toyota to establish a comfortable 32.1-second lead over Neuville who remains second.
While Neuville has all but cemented his second-place finish going into the final day, with 55.7 seconds in hand over third-placed Katsuta, the Belgian could not match Evans’ pace. The Hyundai driver complained that he spun ‘the wheels all the time’ and that he had ‘no traction’ to improve his speed.
Despite a mistake on SS12, Katsuta managed to recover himself to regain third place in the overall standings. The Japanese driver had temporarily lost this podium position to Hyundai’s Teemu Suninen when he had a spin on the 12th stage. However, Katsuta returned to the final podium spot with 6.4 seconds over Suninen who was demoted back to fourth.
Toyota’s fourth car, and guest entry, piloted by Jari-Matti Latvala rounded out the top five, three minutes and 39.5 seconds behind Evans’ pace.
Oliver Solberg led the WRC2 class, in sixth of the overall standings, ahead of Sami Pajari, Adrien Fourmaux, Nikolay Gryazin and Andreas Mikkelsen who were seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th respectively.
M-Sport Ford’s remaining Puma, driven by Pierre Louis-Loubet found himself down in 47th after he rejoined the event when he joined his teammate, Ott Tanak, on the retirement list Friday morning.
That’s all for the article; Evans evades Neuville’s challenge after third day of WRC Rally Finland!
Read more WRC here:
- WRC: Rovanpera OUT of Rally Finland
- Evans snatches WRC Rally Finland lead as Rovanpera rolls out
- Disaster for M-Sport Ford as Tanak retires from Rally Finland
- Tanak fastest in WRC Rally Finland opener
- WRC 2023 Rally Finland: Preview
- WRC: Kalle Rovanpera secures third consecutive rally win in Estonia
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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.
