Kalle Rovanperä will defend his WRC Drivers title after teammate and championship rival Elfyn Evans crashed out of Rally Central Europe & any hope of taking a title fight to the season finale in Japan diminished.
The Welshman ran slightly wide on a right-hander and collided with a wooden building. He and Scott Martin appeared to struggle to free the GR Yaris Rally1, which was tangled with the smashed door of the building, and were forced to get out of the car and into retirement.
The initiative was already with Kalle Rovanperä after his strong start to the event, but it looked like there might still be a chance for Evans after he went fastest on the first stage of the morning loop and the Finn had an overshoot that cost him over 24 seconds as he turned round and got back underway.
The mistake saw his lead slashed from 35.6 seconds to just 10.9s going into the final stage of the loop.
The drama wasn’t over though, as Rovanperä dropped a further 22 seconds in stage 11, backing off after he heard about Evans’ mistake which gifted the lead to the hard-charging Thierry Neuville.
