Elfyn Evans is prepared for an ‘all or nothing’ approach in a bid to secure a maiden World Rally Championship title on the final day at Rally Saudi Arabia.
The WRC championship leader heads into the season finale’s final three stages behind fellow title contenders and Toyota team-mates Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera.
Evans has found the going tough on Saudi Arabia’s brutal gravel stages, having been initially hampered by road position before a puncture in stage 11 necessitated a wheel change, contributing to a loss of more than two minutes.
Evans ended the day in eighth while Rovanpera and Ogier held fifth and sixth respectively. As it stands Ogier will claim a record-equalling ninth world title by four points from Evans, although Saturday will offer a further 10 ‘Super Sunday’ points to crews.
“It looks like it is all going to come down to Saturday. It is quite straightforward I guess,” said Evans.
When asked if it was a case of an all or nothing approach to the final day, Evans added: “It looks like that and everything is still pretty close and in reach, so of course that has to be the plan.
“We have to give it the best shot we can. It is a shame that Sami [Pajari] has fallen in between us [title contenders] as it would have been nice if we were all within one position. It doesn’t matter, we will try our best and see what comes.
“It is pretty clear we are going to have to go for it now.”
Ogier: Title is still in our hands
While Ogier holds a comfortable margin of more than two minutes over Evans, despite picking up a puncture in Friday’s final stage, the eight-time world champion says he will have no option but to “go for it” as well.
"It is hard to give any description to be honest [of that final stage]. I had this stage identified as the roughest one of the weekend and I was trying to have careful rhythm and not really pushing, but still I had a double puncture and at the same time Kalle pushing flat out and had nothing. It proved that there is nothing really you can control in this condition unfortunately,” said Ogier.
“We still have our destiny in our hands and that is the only thing we can be happy with tonight. Tomorrow we hope to stay out of trouble, but we will have to go for it.”
Rovanpera remains an outside shot at the title having headed into the season finale 24 points adrift of Evans. The Finn is readying himself for a push in what will be his last outing in the WRC before making a switch to single-seater racing next year in Super Formula.
“We will just go for it. It should be a better starting place for us so we will see what we can get,” said Rovanpera.
Sesks on the verge of milestone WRC moment
Outside of the title battle, the WRC could welcome a new winner on Saturday with M-Sport-Ford’s Martins Sesks in the box seat to claim a memorable maiden win.
Making his first start since Rally Finland in August, the Latvian has thrived in the challenging conditions to head into the final day with a 3.4s lead over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
Sesks led the rally going into Friday’s final stage but was among the six crews to suffer a puncture that dropped him 2.4s behind Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux.
However, Fourmaux checked into the final time control a minute early which resulted in a one-minute penalty, dropping the Frenchman to fourth.
Speaking before the news of Fourmaux’s penalty, Sesks said: “It is crazy. We were trying to be very smooth and safe on the last one and still we got a puncture.
“You just need to have luck because I was really focusing on the road and then there was a rock on the line and we hit it and got a puncture.
“Let’s see how it is [on Saturday]. So far, we have been doing our job as best as we can so we will keep trying. There are still chances for everything and there is 60 kilometres to go.”
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