The response from Elfyn Evans was expected and it arrived on time. The Welsh Toyota Racing driver set the best time in Special Stage 4 of the Ypres Rally, the last of the morning, in 4’13 “5.
Thanks to this time trial Evans managed to increase his advantage over his main rivals, namely Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville. Both Hyundai Motorsport drivers finished immediately behind their rival, losing 1 “7 and 1” 5 respectively to the leader of the overall standings of the event.
After this test Evans leads the standings with 2 “3 ahead of Tanak and 8” 8 over Thierry Neuville. However, if the first part of the test was characterized by dry asphalt – although there were threatening clouds over the track – the second was plagued by rain.
Precisely for this reason the ranking behind the top three has changed significantly. Esapekka Lappi was the last driver to enjoy the dry stage, while Adrien Fourmaux – fourth until the previous test – lost over a minute due to the intensity of the rainfall that flooded the asphalts a few kilometers from Ypres.
This caused the M-Sport driver to slide to eighth place, while Lappi regained fourth position after having lost it in the previous test. Although Craig Breen was also slowed by the water, he is now fifth at 4 “2 from the Top 4.
Unlucky also Gus Greensmith and Oliver Solberg, or the other riders who entered testing in the pouring rain who, as expected, were forced to raise their pace to avoid going off the road. The gearbox problems that continue to slow Takamoto Katsuta should be noted. The Japanese from Toyota managed to finish the morning lap and will be able to use the Service to change the transmission and start again in the afternoon.
As for the WRC2 we find Stéphane Lefebvre in front of everyone at the wheel of the Citroen C3 Rally2. The Frenchman, who returned to the WRC after several months, precedes reigning champion Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda TokSport) by 8 “2 and Yohan Rossel by 9” 8. The transalpine lost the second position in the last test of the morning.
The morning lap of the first day of the Ypres Rally ends here. Now the drivers will be able to count on the mid-day Service to prepare the cars for the afternoon lap. Special Stage 5, Vleteren 2 of 11.97 kilometers, will start at 15:16 Italian time. Variable weather is expected for the afternoon, with rain expected to affect much more than what we saw this morning.
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