A penultimate stage puncture has cost World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans valuable points as the Welshman dropped from second to fifth at Rally Chile.
The Toyota driver appeared on course to finish second and was topping the Super Sunday standings by 4.6s when drama struck in the second pass of the brand new 26.82km Carampangue stage.
Evans and co-driver Scott Martin were forced to pull over and complete a wheel change that cost the pair more than two minutes.
"No idea about the puncture but is that any surprise?,” said a frustrated Evans at the stage end after falling behind his nearest title rival Sami Pajari to the tune of 48.5s.
Evans’ Toyota team-mate Oliver Solberg remained on course to claim a championship boosting second win of the season. The Swede took a 13.3s lead over nine-time world champion Sebastien Ogier, who jumped into second following Evans’ puncture.
“There was quite a lot of dust [from the recovering Evans] but I was also quite careful with the tyres and not to kill them. I had a puncture in the previous stage so I was quite scared,” said rally leader Solberg.
Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux climbed into the final spot on the podium with the Frenchman 16.2s behind Ogier after suffering two punctures earlier this morning.
Pajari, the winner of the previous three WRC rounds, now looks set to cut the 20-point deficit to points leader Evans, sitting in fourth.
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi held sixth ahead of M-Sport-Ford’s Josh McErlean, while WRC2 runner Yohan Rossel, Robert Virves and Gus Greensmith rounded out the top 10 ahead of the final stage.
