M-Sport 'won't sleep' to help Evans beat Neuville
ByAutoSport
Published 30/03/2019 at 20:42 GMT
The M-Sport World Rally Championship team 'won't sleep' in order to optimise Elfyn Evans's Ford Fiesta in his victory battle with Hyundai's Thierry Neuville on the Tour of Corsica.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Evans - who has one top flight WRC win on Rally GB in 2017 - sits 4.5 seconds behind Neuville, having dropped 16s to the Belgian in the last Saturday stage.
Evans spent most of the rally ahead of Neuville and fighting Toyota's Ott Tanak, who dropped out of the victory battle with a puncture on Saturday evening.
Evans and Neuville have gone toe-to-toe on the final day of a WRC rally before, with the latter winning by 0.7s on Rally Argentina in 2017.
But M-Sport's chief rally engineer Chris Williams says the squad will burn the midnight oil in a bid to reverse that result, even taking unnecessary parts out of the car to shed weight.
"We've done absolutely everything we can," Williams told Autosport.
"We've put new brakes, new dampers [on the car], it's had everything.
"Put it this way, the engine guy's not going to sleep tonight, the chassis guy's not going to sleep tonight.
"We've got everything out of it [weight]. We're on the limit."
Evans said he will "give it everything" on the event where he impressed in 2015, taking his then best result in the WRC of third with the same team in treacherous stormy conditions.
"I still don't understand how we lost so much time in the last stage. It didn't feel too bad for me; I'd have been surprised if we'd have dropped five seconds," said Evans.
"I like tomorrow's stages, it's like Ireland - that'll be good for me."
There are two stages remaining on Sunday, a 31.85 kilometre dash through Eaux de Zilia, before the event-concluding powerstage named Calvi, which runs for 19.34km.
M-Sport team principal Rich Millener said the 20-mile Eaux de Zilia test which opens Sunday morning will be crucial.
"He [Evans] needs to get in there [Eaux de Zilia] and get some time out of Thierry," said Millener.
"Thierry knows Elfyn's been quicker than him on this rally and he can do it again tomorrow.
"We haven't put all this effort in to come second. We want him to go out there and win it and we know he can do that."
Neuville's mood was upbeat and confident, pointing out that - unlike Evans - he'd been through Sunday's stages when the event was around of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge in 2011.
"I was fastest in them both times [in the IRC]," he said.
"It should be OK tomorrow.
"I wasn't committed enough this morning.
"I turned that around this afternoon - I had a good feeling and a good rhythm in the car.
"The confidence in the car in the last stage was really good. It was the perfect stage. I think I even had a smile on my face because I knew it was good."
Neuville finished second on the event last year to then M-Sport driver Sebastien Ogier, who has since moved to Citroen.
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