Elfyn Evans' Sunday was vital in CER, as it effectively gained him 10 championship points
Photography by Toyota
Words by Luke Barry
How important a turnaround could this prove to be?
There was a point during the Central European Rally where Elfyn Evans was worryingly distant – down in eighth place while his two biggest title rivals were first and second.
Yet he flew home from Passau as comfortably the second-highest points scorer from the weekend, losing just six points to Kalle Rovanperä and gaining 15 on Sébastien Ogier.
The key was in his Sunday performance, where the Welshman was second only to Ogier (who had absolutely nothing to lose) in both Super Sunday and the powerstage and stole second spot overall from Ott Tänak as well.
Effectively, that was 10 points gained (four for Sunday, four for the powerstage and two for passing Tänak) and much better pace. So what changed? What was different?
“I drove properly,” Evans told DirtFish.
Talk about being hard on yourself. But the championship leader did have a serious point to make.
“A few things changed,” he elaborated. “Obviously we changed a bit on the car on Saturday night. Not massive changes, but I think I started the day with a better feeling. Also, I actually pushed a bit less.”
Stangely, that was the key.
Evans continued: “I think I’d fallen into a rut of probably overdriving a little bit, especially Saturday afternoon. I think it was important to try and find a good rhythm and be smooth again.
“So yeah, obviously I was pretty unhappy yesterday with how things turned out and I wasn’t heading into the day particularly confident, but at least we managed to find a way again.”
What did he actually change on the car?
Evans didn't revolutionize his GR Yaris, more his driving style on Sunday
“I didn’t change so much, it was only a few springs and dampers and what have you, there was no huge balance changes or anything like that, so nothing radical. But it just all helped the feeling a little bit.
“And yeah the tire is quite a specific one. If you overdrive it, then you tend to go slower. You can’t push on it, you have to drive to the limit of the tire rather than to the limit of how fast you think you can go around the corner, let’s say. So, yeah, I think we needed to adjust on one side a little bit more.”
The net result is Evans is back in the championship lead again, and will run first on the road at Toyota’s home event in Japan – an event Evans has won for the last two years.
“Well that [first on the road] could be good or bad depending on what the weather does,” Evans warned. “Two years ago when it rained like hell, I think I was second on the road there and it was definitely not a nice place to be early on the road when all those leaves fell and you had all that water. So it might not be the ideal place in the end, but let’s wait and see.”
But a 13-point lead, he’d have signed for that before CER?
“Yeah, definitely. I mean, you have to take whatever you can when you can. Obviously, Kalle’s closed on us. Séb was obviously unfortunate. So, yeah, we just have to keep going.”
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Central European Rally, Central European Rally 2025, Elfyn Evans, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date October 21, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/10/lQUKbO4v-Evans12CER25cm448-780x520.jpg October 21, 2025
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