(Reuters) – Welshman Elfyn Evans was heading for his second Rally Finland victory after winning seven stages in a row for Toyota on Saturday.
With only four stages and a total of 51.64 km of timed action remaining on the fast gravel roads on Sunday, 2021 winner Evans led Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville by a comfortable 32.1 seconds.
Evans had started the penultimate day 6.9 seconds clear but stood out through the wet early stages and again in drier afternoon conditions to take all but one of the day’s eight stages.
“Obviously it’s a nice position to be in but of course there are still more stages to come tomorrow,” said Evans. “The focus will be on that now, and we’ll try to keep doing the same.”
Toyota’s world championship leader and reigning champion Kalle Rovanpera crashed out of his home event on Friday, giving Evans a chance to close the gap on his team mate with four rounds remaining.
Rovanpera came into the Jyvaskyla-based rally with a 55-point advantage over closest rival Evans after eight of 13 rounds.
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta denied Evans a sweep on Saturday by taking the closing Vekkula Two stage ahead of Neuville and the Welshman.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, Editing by Hugh Lawson)
