Elfyn Evans has retaken the lead at the Rally Chile after the nominal times of the first special stage were adjusted
Change of leadership at the green table at the Rally Chile, the eleventh round of the 2024 World Rally Championship (WRC). Not Hyundai driver Ott Tänak, but his Toyota rival Elfyn Evans will start the second day of the last gravel rally of the 2024 WRC season as the overall leader.
The reason for this is an adjustment of the nominal times on the first stage by the stewards. The first run of the “Pulperia” stage was red-flagged early on Friday morning (local time) because spectators were present in dangerous places.
At that point, only three drivers had completed the stage. All the others, including Evans, were given a nominal time based on the time set by Thierry Neuville (Hyundai).
After the second attempt at the “Pulperia” stage in the afternoon, the stewards looked at the times again and corrected the nominal times of Evans, Adrien Fourmaux (Ford) and Sami Pajari (Toyota).
In this specific case, Evans was judged to be two seconds faster than Tänak on the first stage, after he had initially been recorded as 1.4 seconds behind. Since only 0.4 seconds separated the two in the overall standings after Friday, there was a change in the lead.
Evans now goes into the second day of the rally with a lead of 3.0 seconds over Tänak, when two loops, each with three special stages covering a total of 139.2 kilometers, await the participants.
A protest by Hyundai against the stewards’ decision has been rejected, so Evans retains the lead.