OREANDA-NEWS. M-Sport World Rally Team’s Elfyn Evans and Ott T?nak experienced the highs and lows of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) at Rallye Deutschland. The Ford Fiesta RS WRC drivers displayed pace-setting speed, but it went unrewarded at the first asphalt event of the year.

 Enjoying his first taste of a world rally car on Tarmac for three years, T?nak was swiftly reminded much respect these challenging stages demand. Having been caught-out by an unexpected patch of gravel on the opening speed test, he and co-driver Raigo M?lder were lucky to escape with mere cosmetic damage.
 
Following that time loss, the pairing focused on determining the optimum set-up and were able to increase their pace significantly over the second pass – posting the fourth fastest time through SS14 as well as the Power Stage (SS21).
 
The race was won by Championship leader Sebastian Ogier driving a VW Polo. Elfyn Evans finished in sixth place, with T?nak in eighth position,

“I can’t say I’m satisfied with the rally as a whole, but there were a lot of positives and I was certainly satisfied with our performance on a couple of individual stages,” said Evans.  “We came very close to winning two stages – and we did win one – but we didn’t get everything 100 per cent right this weekend.

“In the mornings the pace and the feeling in the car was good but as the temperatures increased, we just didn’t seem able to keep that same speed. It’s clearly something we need to work on, but the potential is there and we know we can be challenging for the top positions when everything is right.”
 
“I’m sure there’ll be a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes as we prepare for Corsica, and we hope that will result in us fighting towards the very top when the championship returns to Tarmac in October.”