The Toyota driver felt that “the whole lot he touched went improper” final weekend as he witnessed his six-point deficit to championship chief Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville balloon to 24 factors.
Evans’ difficulties started on Friday as he and his Toyota team-mates Sebastien Ogier, Kalle Rovanpera and Takamoto Katsuta struggled to discover a stability with their GR Yaris Rally1 automobiles on the gravel levels.
This, on high of beginning second on the street dropped Evans down the leaderboard earlier than co-driver Scott Martin left his pacenote e-book on the stage 6 time management, which pressured Evans to drive to notes being delivered from a digital copy on a cell phone.
Whereas the Welshman misplaced minimal time from the pacenotes, he conceded 52.6s to a puncture that left him in sixth on the finish of Saturday. A damaged radiator put his rally in danger on Sunday and subsequently ended any possibilities of scoring further factors, leaving him with six Saturday factors, in comparison with Neuville’s whole of 24.
With the tough gravel of Sardinia, the following vacation spot on the WRC calendar (30 Could- 2 June), Evans is hopeful his crew can discover a set-up answer to his Portugal struggles.
“The six factors is the one constructive. In fact, you wish to neglect the weekend, however we now have to be taught from it and be prepared for the following one,” Evans instructed Motorsport.com.
“It will likely be troublesome now with the present testing scenario, however we undoubtedly have to provide you with some new concepts for Sardinia.
When requested if there was time to discover a answer, he added: “Probably, however it’s clearly a danger to take one thing with out making an attempt it however perhaps we have to look again to the previous, we are going to see, we are going to focus on with the crew.”
Toyota opted to conduct its pre-event Portugal take a look at in Sardinia with the intention to put together for the 2 gravel rallies, with take a look at days restricted beneath the FIA’s testing laws.
Workforce principal Jari-Matti Latvala is nevertheless assured his automobiles will carry out higher in Sardinia.
“I believe on Saturday we might see we have been bettering with the efficiency of the automobile, so this was a superb step ahead,” Latvala instructed Motorsport.com.
“I’m not so apprehensive about Sardinia however the largest factor is we simply want to remain on the street, as a result of the present championship doesn’t permit you to take action many errors. The punishment is kind of exhausting.”
