Fine fourth in sunny Sardegna sees Elfyn retain WRC lead

Welsh star overcomes difficult road position to stay ahead in championship.

Elfyn maintained his championship lead with a solid fourth place finish on Rally Italia Sardegna, another loose gravel event where he had the challenge of sweeping the road on the opening day.

Despite this tough task, his patient approach paid off and he stayed away from relative trouble over the hot Sardinian stages to take home a solid haul of points.

Friday’s opening leg was always going to be a challenge and Elfyn kept his head down to finish a clean day, despite a new stage taking its toll on a number of crews. A consistent day performance him hold sixth at the overnight halt.

The pace and the temperatures got even hotter on Saturday, with the soft stages providing lots of loose gravel and dust. The plan of staying out of trouble was working well until a puncture in the afternoon saw him drop around two minutes after stopping in the stage to change the damaged tyre.

However, team-mate Sami Pajari in fourth also punctured and after the chaotic stage Elfyn had moved up to P4. He held that place during Sunday’s final four stages and finished fourth on Super Sunday and fifth in the Power Stage to seal additional points.  

He continues to the lead the drivers’ championship, 19 points in front of Sebastien Ogier and 20 ahead of Kalle Rovanperä, both Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mates.

“Overall we have to be satisfied with how our weekend has turned out. Fourth was realistically as much as we could expect starting first on the road on Friday. This is always a rally full of attrition and getting to the end without big issues was vital. 

“The pace of the top three was pretty hot but the positive thing is that we did make clear progress through the rally in terms of feeling, especially in second-pass conditions, so that gives us some positives to take forward to Greece.”

The tough Acropolis Rally Greece continues the run of classic summer events from 26-29 June.