Evans takes the lead at the Tour de Corse

Elfyn Evans took control of the Tour de Corse against Ott Tänak. The Welshman, however, thought he was losing his lead when he was slowed down by Kris Meeke.

Published on 29/03/2019 à 17:12

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Evans takes the lead at the Tour de Corse

It was an unusual situation that occurred in the Alta-Rocca special which concluded the first stage of the Tour de Corse. So in the lead with more than 4 seconds ahead of Ott Tänak (Toyota), Elfyn Evans (M-Sport) a perdu du temps en se retrouvant bloqué derrière la Yaris WRC of Kris Meeke who was moving at a slow pace after damaging his suspension against a curb on the previous course.

Elfyn Evans was ultimately credited with the same time as Ott Tänak on SS6. The M-Sport driver thus returns to service with a lead of 4”5 over the Estonian.

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) a conforté sa 3e place en évoluant à une dizaine de secondes de la tête de la course et en distançant son coéquipier Dani Sordo qui a baissé de rythme dans le second passage. L’Espagnol se retrouve sous la pression de Teemu Suninen (M-Sport).

Toyota saw two of its crews in difficulty in SS5. Jari-Matti Latvala, then in 6th position, dropped out 3 minutes after having to change a wheel following a puncture, while Kris Meeke lost further time following his contact with a curb.

Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) took the opportunity to climb to 6th place ahead of his teammate Esapekka Lappi, but the C3 WRC clearly seems in difficulty on the Corsican asphalt. The six-time WRC champion notably mentioned significant understeer. Sebastian Loeb (Hyundai) painfully climbed back to 8th place.

Éric Camilli (Volkswagen) remains in control of WRC 2, occupying 9th place in the general classification, 20 seconds ahead of Yoann Bonato (Citroën). Nikolay Gryazin (Skoda) remains on the provisional podium in the category with a handful of seconds ahead of Nicolas Ciamin (Volkswagen).