Evans takes Rally Chile lead as Ogier suffers puncture

Evans takes Rally Chile lead as Ogier suffers puncture

27th September 2024 0 By Kamron Kent

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans is the overnight rally leader after the first day of action at the World Rally Championship’s Rally Chile Bio as, teammate, Sebastien Ogier falls out of contention.

Feature image credit: Red Bull Content Pool

Evans, who is yet to win a rally this season, is on course to notch up his first win of 2024 in the South American country of Chile for round 11 of 13. 

The Welshman managed to stay out of trouble, but the same could not be said for his teammate, Ogier. The eight-time world champion was forced to change his tyre on stage three, following a puncture, and this knocked him out of the rally lead.

Martins Sesks, who returned for his third outing in a hybrid-less Rally1 Puma, also suffered puncture problems on SS3 with a double puncture by the end of the stage. 

M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux could have been fighting out in front as he finished the day 2.2 seconds behind Evans. However, a late check-in cost the Frenchman who was slapped with a one-minute penalty. 

How did the first day end?

Evans topped the timing boards with the fastest time of the day, a 58-minute and 3.9-second time.

The Welshman was closely followed by fellow championship contender, Hyundai’s Ott Tanak who was three seconds behind in second whilst Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera completed the top three.

Toyota’s Sami Pajari, who is contending in Rally1 machinery this weekend, stands best of the rest in fourth, 12.2s off the pace of Evans. However, he has M-Sport Ford’s Gregoire Munster for company in fifth, a second behind the Finnish driver. 

Hyundai’s championship leader, Thierry Neuville completed the day down in sixth, half a minute off the pace – having opened the road on the opening day. 

Neuville’s part-time teammate, Esapekka Lappi occupied seventh at the end of the opening day just under six seconds behind the championship leader.

Fourmaux and Ogier completed the WRC Rally1 contenders inside the top 10, in ninth and 10th respectively. Both drivers were off the leading time by one minute. 

This left WRC2’s leading driver, Nikolay Gryazin to complete the top 10. 

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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.