Elfyn Evans’ miserable 2024 World Rally Championship campaign continued at Rally Chile as he lost the win to his teammate.
The Welshman went into the event having finished on the podium four times in 2024 and finished in the top five in all but three rallies.
Evans has failed to secure victory this season, having suffered damaging punctures in Kenya, Portugal and Sardinia that left him down the order. A driveshaft failure at Rally Finland and a torrid weekend in Greece for Toyota only added to his woes.
The 35-year-old looked to put his struggles behind him in Chile as he took the lead of the rally on Friday. Ott Tanak had been ahead at the end of the day, but a change in notional times after SS1 was cancelled gave Evans the advantage. Hyundai’s appeal against the decision was rejected by the stewards and the Toyota driver kept his lead.
On Saturday, Evans won two of the three opening stages to pull an 11.3 second lead over his teammate Kalle Rovanpera, but at SS11, thick fog descended over Chile and caught out the Welshman.
Tiff Needell is ‘frustrated’ by Toyota’s part-time drivers beating Elfyn Evans
Poor visibly led to Evans cruising on certain parts of the course, which led to relinquishing his lead to Rovanpera as he lost 24.1 seconds to the Finn. The 35-year-old ultimately finished the rally second as Rovanpera grabbed his fourth win of the season.
READ MORE: Thierry Neuville makes ‘obvious’ Hyundai performance assessment after Toyota wins Rally Chile
Evans is one of two full-time Toyota drivers alongside Takamoto Katsuta, with world champions Rovanpera and Sebastien Ogier competing in the WRC part-time this season.
Despite this, it has been two part-time drivers that have collected all seven of Toyota’s wins this year – Rovanpera winning four and Ogier three – while Evans has finished second four times in 2024, three times behind his Toyota teammates.
Speaking on the Lovercars On The Grid Podcast, Tiff Needell was left ‘frustrated; by Toyota has Evans ‘should have been world champion’ being a full-time driver, but has been allowed to be beaten by his part-time teammates.
“This is the year Eflyn Evans should have been world champion. He had the best car when he finished second the last three years,” he said.
“He always had Seb Ogier in the way or a Kalle Rovanpera in the way. They both steeped aside, being part-time entries this year so surely Elfyn was going to be world champion.
“He had mechanical troubles, the Hyundais have been going strongly. He’s had the part-time world champions coming back and beating him, taking points off him which I’ve been pretty frustrated [with]. I don’t know what Toyota are thinking.”
Toyota will have three full-time drivers in 2025
Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala has admitted to making a mistake with the team’s driver line-up in 2024 due to their misfortunes this season.
READ MORE: Rally Chile leader Kalle Rovanpera admits conditions ‘most challenging’ of the year
Latvala has said that the Japanese manufacturer will field three full-time drivers in 2025. Rovanpera is set to return to a full-time seat next year, while Katsuta and Evans’ future are currently unknown.
Ogier’s future is also uncertain, with the Frenchman reiterating that he will never compete full-time in the WRC again. Ogier has also expressed his desire to return to DTM in the future, putting his immediate WRC future in doubt.
Following their one-two finish in Chile, Toyota have moved within 17 points of Hyundai in the Manufacturers’ Championship, putting them back in contention with only Central Europe and Japan remaining in the season.