Denying Kalle Rovanpera a second World title was, by his own admission, a “long shot” for Elfyn Evans. And when his Toyota came off second best from a hefty whack into a German barn door on Saturday morning, the Welshman’s outside championship hopes were effectively over.
Providing his wrecked Yaris could be fixed for Sunday’s deciding leg, Evans would have needed Rovanpera to fail to finish and for the Powerstage win – and the accompanying five bonus points – to be his for him to have maintained his fading title challenge until the Rally Japan finale later this month.
Evans did restart and did go fastest on the all-new Central European Rally’s final test. But with Rovanpera in relative cruise control in the knowledge that keeping out of trouble would make him champion again, there
