Elfyn Evans

Elfyn Rhys Evans (born 28 December 1988) is a Welsh professional rally driver. He has competed full-time in World Rally Championship since 2014, originally for M-Sport Ford and currently for Toyota Gazoo Racing since 2020. Evans was runner-up in the drivers' championship in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024, with a total 11 wins and 41 podiums. Scott Martin has served as his co-driver since 2019.

Career

The son of 1996 British Rally Championship Champion and former WRC driver Gwyndaf Evans, he is sponsored by the family Ford motor dealership in Dolgellau, first established by his great-grandfather in Dinas Mawddwy, renamed to Gwyndaf Evans Motors in 1983."About GEM"
, Gwyndaf Evans Motors

Evans began his professional career in 2007, driving a Group N production-car-class Ford Fiesta in the Ford Fiesta Sporting Trophy. He also competed in that year's Rally GB in Wales.

In 2010 Evans won the British Junior Rally championship and was the winner of the UK Ford Fiesta Trophy series, also he won the Pirelli Star Driver Shoot-out after two days of tests and assessments at the Sweet Lamb rally complex in his native Wales, with a prize of a fully funded season in a Pirelli-backed Group N Subaru Impreza run by the championship-winning TEG Sport team – a prize worth in excess of £200,000.

In 2012, Evans secured the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) Academy title, the R2 title in the British Rally Championship (BRC) and the UK Fiesta Sport Trophy. In addition, he won the end-of-year FST International Shootout. In 2013 he contested a programme of WRC events in a 4WD car – his prize for winning the WRC Academy – and worked at M-Sport, helping to develop rally cars for the WRC and other championships.

His 2013 season began with the first round of the Australian Rally Championship, the National Rally in Canberra, in which he retired early on the first day. He then drove a Fiesta RRC on the WRC Rally of Portugal, retiring with a transmission problem before starting the final day under Rally 2 regulations. To his surprise, he was then asked to compete on the Rally Italy in Sardinia in a Ford Fiesta World Rally Car after Nasser Al-Attiyah was forced to withdraw because of commitments in Qatar. Despite having never competed on the event before, using Nasser's co-driver, competing in a WRC car for the first time and with no pre-event testing, Evans finished sixth.

Evans switched to M-Sport for the 2014 season to drive a Ford Fiesta WRC as the teammate of veteran Mikko Hirvonen. His best results have been fourth at Mexico and Germany. The driver scored two podiums in 2015, finishing 7th in the overall standings.

M-Sport dropped Evans to the WRC-2 in 2016. Driving a Ford Fiesta R5, scoring wins at Monte Carlo, Sweden and Tour de Corse. He also won the 2016 British Rally Championship with five wins in seven races, also driving the Ford Fiesta R5.

For 2017, Elfyn rejoined the M-Sport World Rally Team to drive the DMACK car. He started the year with sixth in Monte Carlo, setting several fastest stage times, and then repeated the performance in Sweden. After two disappointing rounds in Mexico and Corsica, at round five in Argentina, Evans benefited from misfortune for his rivals to end day one with a minute's lead. On day two, Evans struggled with punctures, a spin and a damaged diffuser, and saw his lead fall to just 11 seconds. On the final stage, it was a straight battle between him and Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville. He pushed early in the stage, but lost several seconds when he hit a bridge. He tried hard to make up the lost time, but in the end he lost his first victory by just 0.7 seconds to Neuville. In Finland, Evans was left to uphold team honors after a crash for teammate Sébastien Ogier and a puncture for Ott Tänak. He dutifully set consistent top three stage times and snatched second place on the last stage from Juho Hänninen, in what many journalists described as the best drive of his career so far. At the penultimate round on his home rally in Wales, Evans took advantage of his DMACK tyres, which were widely suited to the conditions, to take his first WRC victory, the first for a Welsh driver, and the first for a British driver on Wales Rally GB since the late Richard Burns in 2000. He would finish the championship in fifth place.

Evans would later repeat the success he found in Wales with a second career victory in the 2020 Rally Sweden, during his first season with Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, where he led the rally despite adverse weather conditions which forced the organisers to abridge the event to just nine stages. This marked his first win in Sweden, his first rally win for Toyota, and the first British driver to win the event. His victory in Sweden also allowed him to lead the points standings in the WRC driver's championship for the first time in his career. He eventually finished the year in second position in the Covid-abbreviated championship, helped by a second rally win of the season in the 2020 Rally Turkey. He finished the season eight points behind champion Sébastien Ogier, and nine points ahead of Ott Tänak, who finished third.

During the 2021 World Rally Championship, his second season with Toyota, Evans won two further WRC events, in Portugal and Finland, and finished in second position in five others. He remained in contention for the title until the final rally of the season, but finished that event in second position to championship winner and Toyota teammate Ogier with only a 0.6-second time difference. For the second year in a row, Evans finished the championship in second position, 23 points behind Ogier and 31 points ahead of third-placed Thierry Neuville.

During the 2022 World Rally Championship, his third season with Toyota, teammate Kalle Rovanperä secured the drivers' championship title. Evans didn't secure any wins this season, but with 4 podium finishes, ended the championship in 4th position. Evans contributes his dry spell in 2022 to not adapting to the new hybrid cars introduced at the start of the season, admitting others adapted better, but he was determined to improve for the 2023 season with hopes to challenge for the title.

The 2023 World Rally Championship saw a return to glory for Evans, securing 3 rally wins, in Croatia Rally, Rally Finland and Rally Japan, in order to secure the runner-up spot behind teammate and championship winner Kalle Rovanperä. The 2024 World Rally Championship saw Evans pick-up another runners-up spot, behind Thierry Neuville who had just secured his first drivers championship, Evans took his first and only win of the season in the closing round at 2024 Rally Japan taking the championship runner-up spot away from Ott Tänak who retired. This marked Evans 4th time as the WRC drivers' championship runner-up, hoping to mount a championship challenge for the 2025 season.

The 2025 World Rally Championship brought on new regulations that removed the hybrid systems that had only just been introduced in 2022. A change that Evans' had previously attributed to a slump in form, Evans' had previously excelled with the non-hybrid Toyotas of 2020 and 2021, mounting championship battles with 8-time World Rally Champion Sebastian Ogier in both years, which proved a positive outlook for Evans' possible championship challenge for the 2025 season.

WRC victories

Results

WRC results

* Season still in progress.

WRC Academy results

WRC-2 results

ERC results

References

External links

*

Athlete profile of Elfyn Evans
on Redbull.com

Gwyndaf Evans Motors

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Elfyn
1988 births
Living people
People from Dolgellau
Sportspeople from Gwynedd
Welsh rally drivers
World Rally Championship drivers
Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers
M-Sport drivers
21st-century Welsh sportsmen