Evans “at ease” with diminishing points lead

Elfyn Evans' lead is decreasing, but that's what he always expected at this stage of the season

Photography by Toyota

Words by Luke Barry & David Evans

World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans is “at ease” with the fact his points lead is diminishing with each passing round.

Evans took the championship lead after victory at Rally Sweden, and extended it to a strong 36 points following another win in Kenya.

Although Kalle Rovanperä won the Canaries, Evans still bumped up his series lead to 43 – but since then, faced with the task of sweeping the road clear on gravel, it has gradually started to come down.

Heading into next week’s Acropolis Rally Greece, Evans’ advantage is 19 points over Sébastien Ogier with fellow Toyota team-mate another point further back.

That means over the past two events (Portugal and Sardinia) Evans has ceded 24 points – but that’s come as no surprise nor is it a cause for any concern.

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“I think we knew really coming into these seven gravel rallies that that points gap wasn’t realistically going to be very easy to maintain unless others had problems,” Evans told DirtFish.

“I’m at ease with the fact that it’s coming down, but we naturally have to keep fighting. We have to try and be a bit better in these dry gravel rallies, but naturally it’s very easy to not get to the end of them and not get any points.

“It’s a bit of a balancing act, obviously, and we will have to be back on the pace obviously once we come through.”

The Acropolis should be the worst event to be first on the road for a while, with Estonia and Finland following immediately after.

But will Ogier be a rival for Evans to concern himself over? And moreover, would Evans want him to be?

“It doesn’t make a difference to me,” he replied. “It’s up to Séb at the end of the day.

“I think this question comes up every year after this sort of time when he’s won a few of these dry gravel rallies.

“Ultimately, it’s up to Séb [but] it’s the world championship. You have to beat anyone that comes and that’s how it is.”

Words:Luke Barry

Tags: Elfyn Evans, WRC, WRC 2025

Publish Date June 19, 2025 DirtFish https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/06/ElFuvj60-EVANS06ITA25tb213-780x520.jpg June 19, 2025

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