Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Elfyn Evans ended the opening day of Rally Spain on Friday just 0.7s behind leader Thierry Neuville and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“This morning was very good for us. The feeling in the car was good and we got into a pretty nice rhythm, but I was surprised to have such a strong time in the first stage. The afternoon loop was OK for the most part, it was just the middle stage where it was a bit more dirty that seemed to be a bit difficult for us. We had a big moment and hit the rear fairly hard on a kerb, but we got away with it. It’s very close now between the top two positions and it’s all to play for going into another tricky day tomorrow.”
Sebastien Ogier is currently in third place, 19.4s behind the leader and speaking following the action he said:
“It’s been an OK day for us today. It was not as good as we wanted, as we came here wanting to fight for the victory and at the moment we didn’t have the rhythm for that. This morning was not a bad loop, but Elfyn had a really good start. This afternoon there were some really dirty sections, and I struggled a bit on those, not wanting to take full risk. Nineteen seconds is a bit too much of a gap tonight but we’ll keep working to improve and we’re still in a position to fight for big points, so let’s see what tomorrow brings.”
Kalle Rovanpera is currently in fifth place and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“Overall it was quite an OK day for us. The morning was quite tricky and we struggled a bit too much. But in service we made some changes to the car which actually helped quite a lot, and it was more enjoyable this afternoon. It was good learning and we gained a lot of experience today that we didn’t have before with this car. Tomorrow could also be quite tricky with stages that our rivals know quite well with World Rally Cars, but we will keep trying to improve.”
Speaking about the opening day of action Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal) said:
“It’s been an exciting first day and as always here on these roads, the time differences are very small. That said, we saw Elfyn do such an incredible time on the first stage this morning, and it was great to see him bring the kind of speed that he also had in Finland. This afternoon we saw another very good stage time from the competition, and now it’s very close between the top two drivers tonight. For us a team it’s very positive to have Seb inside the top three as well, and Kalle has also been doing a good job without so much experience on these roads.”