World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans says his approach will not change for next week’s Rally Japan, but is wary not to fall into the same trap that hampered his title bid last year.
The Toyota driver heads to Japan’s asphalt stages leading the championship by 12 points from team-mate and home hero Takamoto Katsuta as the series approaches its halfway mark.
As championship leader, Evans will start Rally Japan first on the road, which in theory should offer the best position, unlike gravel rallies where the starting first is a big disadvantage. Although, with the rally moving from November to a May date it could serve up some surprises.
However, the five-time title runner-up says the prospect of leaving Rally Japan, which is the final asphalt event of the year, too far ahead in the championship could have its disadvantages even more this season. This year, seven consecutive gravel rallies will end the campaign.
Evans raced into a significant championship lead last year, which meant he had the disadvantage of opening the road for almost all the gravel events in the second half of the campaign, which proved costly.
“Nothing changes [for my approach to rally Japan]. I don’t know how the rally will be, being a different time of year but we will wait and see,” said Evans, who has twice won Rally Japan and finished no lower than fifth at the event.
The asphalt season comes to an end in Japan
Photo by: Toyota Racing
When asked if it was important to maximise his road position in Japan, Evans revealed the mental quandary he faces: “All the points are important obviously, so of course if you are in a position to get the maximum points you want to take the maximum.
“But even if you leave Japan with the maximum points, we have seen what happened last year already. And in the end, sometimes it is better not to be too far ahead because you open yourself up for so many rounds and you eat up yourself. We go to each rally to be the best and what will be will be. I’m not thinking too much about that.”
Evans has already tasted opening the road on gravel events this year when he finished third at Rally Portugal earlier this month.
While the result was a much better outcome than the sixth place he achieved last year when he opened the road, Evans wasn’t happy with his performance – particularly in the wet conditions.
“I’m happy with the outcome but not so much with the process, let’s say,” Evans added.
“There were some changes to what we would normally bring. There have been a lot of [set up] changes and we have been looking for something better all the time.
“But the reality is when the conditions change you can lose your reference a bit. There are always new directions and new things happening and I’m disappointed in a way as we had a test day [in the wet] that was perfect to test for those conditions and we didn’t make the most of it. That is the biggest frustration.”
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