Evans winner and championship leader after Ogier's retirement

Elfyn Evans takes his third WRC victory after a tornado of punctures and incidents in Turkey. Sébastien Ogier loses big points in title fight; Sébastien Loeb scores a podium for his return to competition.

Published on 20/09/2020 à 13:17

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Evans winner and championship leader after Ogier's retirement

We warned you: the Rally of Turkey is an unforgivable event within the World Rally Championship calendar (WRC). This edition lived up to its reputation with many twists and turns and incidents with extremely brittle terrain.

Personne ne s’en est sorti indemne. La plus longue spéciale du week-end, (38,15 km) a détruit plusieurs pneumatiques sur les voitures de Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota), Elfyn Evans (Toyota), Thierry Neuville and even Sébastien Loeb (Hyundai) lors du premier passage.

The second pass completed the Toyota Yaris WRC Sébastien Ogier. Initially smoking, the engine hood let out some alarming flames. Further penalized by engine outages, the Gapençais parked at the side of the track and searched for the network to call his team, in a gesture similar to Ott Tänak (Hyundai), the day before.

This turnaround benefits Elfyn Evans. The Welshman wins his third WRC rally and becomes the new leader of the 2020 Championship with two rounds remaining.

Author of a zero point in Estonia, Thierry Neuville no longer has too many hopes for the coronation. This did not prevent him from attacking to snatch the best scratch time in the Power Stage from his teammate Ott Tänak on Sunday midday.

“I have the feeling that we deserved better, but it feels good to be back on the podium.”, indicates the Belgian. The podium is the place that people like Sébastien Loeb (Hyundai). The veteran of the field kicked the youngsters' butts by finishing third for his return behind the wheel after eight months of break!

Behind the phenomenon Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota, 4th), Gus Greensmith (Ford) achieved his best result in the WRC with fifth place.

Teemu Suninen (Ford) opened his left rear axle while Pierre-Louis Loubet (Hyundai) suffered engine damage and was unable to see the finish for his second start in the premier category.

In WRC2, success went to the Swede Pontus Tidemand (Skoda), who took advantage of a punctureAdrien fourmaux (Ford) to overtake the Frenchman in the second stage. However, the fastest competitor in the R5 class is the Pole Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Skoda).

Find it in AUTO issue 2279hebdo, on sale Monday evening digitally and Wednesday on newsstands, analysis of the Rally of Turkey by our special correspondent.

Rally Turkey 2020 – Final classification: