Four talking points from the WRC in Spain

Evans closes the gap to Ogier

Following his superb victory on Rally Finland, where he became only the second British driver after Kris Meeke to conquer the famous forest event, Evans arrived in Spain with his tail up. And it showed on the first morning when he quicky opened up a lead while others around him faltered. Fellow Toyota Yaris driver Takamoto Katsuta was left red-faced after mishearing a pace note and crashed out on the very first day, while 2019 world champion Ott Tänak – Evans’s main rival in Finland – departed the scene with his own error on SS4, having already survived a high-speed spin on the second stage of the day.

But Evans couldn’t keep up the rally-winning form as Neuville began to show his hand. Having held a 7.6-second lead over the Hyundai ace after four stages, he ended the Friday leg just 0.7 seconds down on his rival. That stretched over Saturday and into Sunday – but at least he had the beating of Ogier. The maestro never found his groove in Spain and quickly dropped away from the top two. To make matters worse, local hero Dani Sordo took a clean sweep of the stages on the final day in his Hyundai to snatch third place away from him.

Ogier needed to beat Evans by six points to claim his eighth WRC title in Spain. Instead the points swung the other way, Elfyn gaining seven on Séb. It’s still all to play for.

Ogier remains the hot favourite

Ogier will head to Monza on 19^th-21^st November 17 points ahead of Evans with a maximum score of 30 up for grabs. That means the reality is he’s still highly likely to close to within one title of Sébastien Loeb’s record nine WRC crowns – but as Evans found last year with his own heart-breaking mistake in Italy, nothing can ever be certain with so much at stake.

“It’s still alive and it’s probably a very similar situation to last year, except the shoe is on the other foot,” said Evans. “We know anything can happen, but we also know Séb is a pretty smart guy and it is going to take something pretty radical to overtake him. But having said that it is quite clear what we have to do in Monza.

“Seventeen points is still quite a big gap, so we have to go there and try to win and the Power Stage [for which a maximum of five bonus points are available] could be quite crucial also. Ultimately it is going to take a mistake or an issue for Séb [for me] to be champion – but anything can happen.”

Neuville is the master of Spain

While the Evans-Ogier title battle remained in focus, Neuville deserves full credit for a masterful display on the Spanish roads. Taking the lead from Evans on Friday afternoon was just the start, but into Saturday his form strengthened as he notched up eight consecutive stage wins over the first two legs. The hard work was done by Sunday… although he and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe had heart flutters before the final stage of the rally when his Hyundai i20 failed to fire up thanks to a starter motor problem. They nursed it into life eventually to claim a dominant win over Evans by 24.1 seconds.

In Finland Neuville’s title hopes spluttered out on the afternoon of the Saturday leg. But here, he put all of that disappointment behind him to score the second victory of his season, following success on home soil at Ypres in August. It’s too little, too late for the WRC crown – but he had every reason to find satisfaction last weekend after one of his finest rally performances.

Mikkelsen claims WRC2 title – without turning a wheel

One title was wrapped up in Spain, but in odd fashion. Former Volkswagen and Hyundai works driver Andreas Mikkelsen claimed his first WRC crown in the second division WRC2 class despite this being one of the rallies he was sitting out. But as Mads Østberg failed to score enough points to keep the battle going all the way to Monza, the Finn has his first WRC title in the bag. Driving a Skoda Fabia Evo 2 for Toksport this season, the success has justified his step back into the secondary class as the best means to plot his way back to the premier division. Next weekend he heads to Rally Hungary where he hopes to complete a title double by also wrapping up the European Rally Championship too.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.