Elfyn Evans, who was sixth at the time, crashed his Toyota GR Yaris during Stage Seven of Rally Portugal. The Welshman had been struggling with the balance of his car throughout the day due to poor road conditions. The Toyota team has confirmed that the damage is too severe to allow Evans to continue in the rally and salvage points on Sunday.
Bittersweet Day for Toyota
Toyota’s world champion Kalle Rovanpera won three of the eight stages and led the rally by 10.8 seconds from Hyundai’s Dani Sordo. However, Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta was forced to retire due to an alternator failure on the first stage which proved terminal after Stage Two. Despite this setback, Katsuta will rejoin the rally on Saturday.
The team has stated that Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin are unscathed and have undergone medical checks. The GR Yaris sustained heavy damage in the impact, which also triggered a small fire, but was quickly extinguished. The Toyota team has taken the decision to retire the car from the rally after inspecting the damage to car #33.
Last month, Evans won a drought-breaking victory in Croatia, putting him level with his part-time Toyota teammate, Sebastien Ogier, at the top of the championship standings. However, Ogier is not competing in Portugal this weekend.
Despite his crash, Evans remains positive and is looking forward to returning to rally action soon. Toyota will be hoping for a better day on Saturday and Sunday to salvage some points and make up lost ground in the championship standings.
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