Former Pirelli Star Driver Elfyn Evans claimed a dominant victory on last weekend\u2019s Neste Oil Rally Finland, round three of the Pirelli-backed WRC Academy.\u00a0Evans\u2019 win marks the Briton\u2019s second consecutive victory in this year\u2019s highly compeitive series that uses Italian firm Pirelli as the championship\u2019s official tyre supplier.
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\nRally Finland is renowned for being one of the fastest event on the world rally calendar with its super-quick forest stages that are lined with endless trees, crests and hidden \u2018yumps\u2019.\u00a0This year\u2019s event challenged 11 WRC Academy crews with 17 special stages covering 106 kilometres and Pirelli was once again on hand to supply teams with its highly competitive K4 tyre in 175\/70-15 K4 size.<\/p>\n
Evans, winner of the previous round in Greece, drove a near-perfect rally from start to finish as the 23-year-old Briton racked up eight stage wins at the wheel of his Ford Fiesta R2.\u00a0His sterling performance has awarded Evans with an 18 championship lead at the season\u2019s half-way point.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m over the moon to have won in Finland, it\u2019s such an incredible feeling,\u201d said Evans, who also leads his home championship: the Pirelli-supported British Rally Championship.\u00a0\u201cI had a lot of fun this weekend and we\u2019re learning a lot all the time. The atmosphere and fans that are out on the stages makes this rally even more special.\u00a0I\u2019ve had a good first half of the season and I\u2019m looking forward to pushing for more victories during the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pontus Tidemand claimed the second step of the podium following five stage wins on his debut in Finland. The 21-year-old Swede claimed five stage wins today and reached the finish line 55.3 seconds adrift of Evans.\u00a0Tidemand\u2019s result marks the driver\u2019s second podium finish this season.<\/p>\n
Former Pirelli Star Driver Brendan Reeves claimed the final podium spot, reaching the finish 32.1 seconds behind second-placed Tidemand.\u00a0Timo van der Marel was lying third until an incident on the day\u2019s closing Ouninpohja stage saw the disappointed Dutchman forced to retire from the event.<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s Jose Suarez finished fourth and was followed closely home by Scotland\u2019s John MacCrone who rounded off the top five.\u00a0Sixth place was awarded to America\u2019s Chris Duplessis with Jose Silva finishing seventh after a troubled rally.\u00a0Ashley Haigh-Smith claimed the eighth spot.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland’s Alastair Fisher was battling with Evans for the victory before a throttle problem put him out of winning contention. \u00a0Fisher was able to return under Rally 2 and finished ninth. The driver now drops to third in the overall standings, three points behind second-placed Brendan Reeves.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything started really well and the battle was shaping up nicely with Elfyn [Evans],\u201d said Fisher at the finish.\u00a0\u201cBut then we picked up a puncture on stage five after hitting a rock which caused us problems with the throttle.\u00a0We couldn\u2019t carry on but we were pleased to come back today.\u00a0Now we\u2019re going to keep our head down, there\u2019s still three rounds remaining and we\u2019re ready for Germany.\u00a0We competed there last year so we\u2019ve got some good experience of the stages.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Pirelli Star Driver Elfyn Evans claimed a dominant victory on last weekend\u2019s Neste Oil Rally Finland, round three of the Pirelli-backed WRC Academy.\u00a0Evans\u2019 win marks the Briton\u2019s second consecutive victory in this year\u2019s highly compeitive series that uses Italian firm Pirelli as the championship\u2019s official tyre supplier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[783],"class_list":["post-1210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pirelli","tag-pirelli"],"yoast_head":"\n