Damien Smith
Elfyn Evans still remains the favourite to claim his first World Rally Championship title this season – at least as far as I’m concerned. The Brit has yet to win after the first three rounds but has scored consistently to lie just six points off Thierry Neuville’s lead with 10 to play.
Four times a runner-up in the past five seasons, the Toyota ace will be targeting a morale-boosting victory in Croatia next week (18-21 April) to perhaps lift himself above and clear of his Hyundai rival.
Double champion Kalle Rovanperä was untouchable on the Safari, but because the Finn insists on rallying only part-time this season, Evans remains the focal point of Toyota’s WRC attack.
Eight-time champion Sébastien Ogier – another infuriating part-timer these days – will return to the Toyota fold in Croatia to muddy the waters, but 35-year-old Evans knows he must focus only on his own form if he is to topple the same-aged Neuville, who is also chasing his first WRC crown.
REALLY WILD SHOW
Rovanperä got his own and Toyota’s season off the mark with a stunning display on the world’s toughest rally stages in Kenya. Winning all six tests on the first day set up the 23-year-old Finn’s bid for his second Safari Rally victory, and his eventual winning margin over team-mate Takamoto Katsuta was more than a minute and a half.
Evans ran as high as second but finished more than four minutes down on Rovanperä after a spate of punctures deflated his attack. Still, fourth place and a haul of 16 points from the WRC’s convoluted scoring system has left him well within range of Neuville, who endured his own wild adventures in Kenya.
The Belgian channelled his inner MacGyver after a right rear puncture punched a hole though the corner of his i20 N. He fashioned a device from a tree branch and a cloth in an attempt to keep choking dust out of the cockpit, as he and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe donned goggles and face masks to make it to the stage’s finish.
Such on-the-spot improvisation remains a pleasing ingredient even in this high-tech modern era.
Other footage from the WRC’s most extreme event left me conflicted. A Hyundai charging in a rugged setting beside giraffes and later towards a herd of scattering zebras certainly looked spectacular, but on social media, it was equally inevitable that some expressed their concern and plain disgust of racing amid such precious wildlife.
