First Elfyn Evans receives a time penalty at the Rally Sweden, then he throws away all chances of a top result by crashing on the 16th special stage
A decision by the stewards at Rally Sweden, the second round of the 2022 World Rally Championship (WRC), has brought about a preliminary decision in the battle for victory. Shortly after midnight, the stewards imposed a time penalty of ten seconds on second-placed Elfyn Evans (Toyota).
As a result, the Welshman now entered the final day 18.3 seconds behind his leading teammate Kalle Rovanperä. But that was soon irrelevant. For on Sunday’s first special stage, Evans hit a wall of snow after spinning, damaging the front of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 and popping the bonnet. Evans was subsequently unable to continue his drive.
Previously, Evans had been penalised for his curious departure just before the finish line of the 15th special stage “Umea 2” on Saturday evening. The Toyota driver had lost control of his car in the final corner of the last special stage of the day and had driven over the fast wall bordering the track.
Evans triggered the timekeeping system at the finish before he rammed a mobile floodlight pole and then continued his journey beyond the track towards the finish control. The stewards considered this to be a violation of Article 19.2 of the WRC Sporting Regulations, as Evans had not followed the route prescribed in the road book at this point.
In addition, Evans had gained an advantage by entering the final corner too quickly, as the finish line was directly at the exit of the corner. “We obviously came in a bit too fast and were more or less on the finish line when we hit the wall of snow”.
Following Evans’ fresh incident on Sunday morning, Rovanperä leads Rally Sweden by 23.9 seconds over Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) after 16 of 19 special stages. Third is Esapekka Lappi (Toyota, +28.8 seconds). Fourth-placed Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota), 1:51.5 minutes behind, can no longer fight for the podium on his own merits.
