Elfyn Evans and Daniel Barritt have been rightly heralded ‘team mates of the year’ – playing a significant role as Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia defended their FIA World Rally Championships today.
The Brits played their part selflessly this weekend – handed the Frenchmen a more advantageous road position at detriment to themselves, and showing good speed despite the looser conditions they had to contend with as a result.
When road cleaning wasn’t a contributing factor, Evans showed his pace and set a string of top times through the super special stages.
It’s not been the season the Welshman had hoped for, but he has shown his speed and played his role admirably – helping the team defend two of their FIA World Rally Championships.
SS1: 7th (+2.5)
SS2: 8th (+4.3)
SS3: 7th (+11.6)
SS4: 10th (+2.8)
SS5: 9th (+3.6)
SS6: 8th (+26.9)
SS7: 4th (+1.9)
SS8: 6th (+1.6)
SS9: 9th (+10.6)
SS10: 10th (+31.3)
SS11: 7th (+14.6)
SS12: =1st
SS13: 10th (+9.1)
SS14: 10th (+23.7)
SS15: 8th (+11.8)
SS16: 2nd (+0.6)
SS17: =6th (+2.4)
SS18: 3rd (+0.9)
SS19: 7th (+18.0)
SS20: 5th (+3.7)
SS21: 8th (+4.2)
SS22: 8th (+17.2)
SS23: 8th (+41.8)
SS24: 4th (+3.0)
So congratulations to Seb, Julien and the whole team. I’m glad they were able to secure this one and – even though it wasn’t always easy – I’m glad we were able to help them where we could. Obviously for various reasons our season didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but the speed was there and hopefully we’ll have a chance to prove that again next year.