M-Sport World Rally Team's Elfyn Evans and
Ott Tänak made a promising start to the 2015 FIA World Rally Championship at
Rallye Monte-Carlo. Evans and co-driver Daniel Barritt finished the event in a
solid seventh place but it could have been so much more. The Welshman was in a
strong fifth place – chasing fourth – when he clipped a wall in SS11 and
damaged the rear suspension of his Ford Fiesta RS WRC. Never willing to give up
the fight, he and Barritt resourcefully fashioned a temporary repair which
avoided retirement and kept them in the fight.
Tänak and his co-driver Raigo Mõlder were running as high as
second overall before being caught out by an unsighted patch of gravel after a
crest in SS10. His Fiesta RS WRC slid off the road down the side of a steep
embankment. Rallying the enthusiastic spectators around him, the Estonian
achieved the seemingly impossible, re-joining the stage. He finished 18th, and
collected two manufacturer points.
At
the finish Elfyn Evans said: "There's a
feeling of what could have been at the end of this event. The potential was
definitely there to do more, but there were a couple of silly mistakes on my
part – one of which was extremely costly. We had some very good tyre choices
throughout the weekend, but then again some weren't quite so good so there are
some things to learn. Overall the speed has been good and that is definitely a
big positive that we can take from this weekend. We can also see where we went
wrong which is important for the future and I'm looking forward to coming back
and having another go at the event next year."
Ott
Tänak said: "It's not been such a bad weekend for
us. We were not pushing – just trying to drive with a reasonably good rhythm.
The conditions were very tricky and the grip level changed on almost every
corner so it was a proper Rallye Monte-Carlo! That is what makes this rally so
difficult and that's why you need to have really good pacenotes and have the
experience to know how the conditions are changing from one section to the
next. Unfortunately we just had one moment yesterday which lost us a lot of
time. But we have certainly learnt a lot."
Team
Principal, Malcolm Wilson added: "The
result is not what it could have been, but I have been extremely impressed by
both Elfyn and Ott this weekend. We were running as high as third and fourth
overall [Tänak as high as second after SS1] and it is fair to say that we never
expected to be in that position. Finally, I want to commend two unsung heroes
of the WRC: the spectators who helped Ott and Raigo re-join the event yesterday
afternoon; and our mechanics who had to make some significant repairs in
limited time over the past two days. I fully believe that we have the best
technicians in the sport. They've proven their skill time and time again and it
is a pleasure to have each and every one of them under the M-Sport
banner."
