Evans not prepared to increase risk to claim WRC Monte Carlo win

Evans will head into Saturday equipped with a 4.5s lead over nine-time Monte Carlo winner Ogier after eight of 17 stages.

Given Ogier’s history at his home event, the Frenchman is regarded as a strong favourite to score a 10th event win and ended Friday in the ascendency after slashing the gap to Evans.

While Evans admitted he would obviously like to challenge for victory, the Welshman is already thinking about his title bid and isn’t prepared to take extra risks to beat his part-time team-mate Ogier.

“The plan is clear I just want to focus on doing my own rally drive well. Of course, we are driving quickly like but I’m not willing to increase the risk level to catch him [Ogier],” said Evans.

“I’m relatively happy. The day has been clean out there and we have had no issues or mistakes.

“We have just been doing our own thing and not getting drawn into the two guys behind. Things are working okay but of course, it is nice to be fast, but today we were not the fastest.

“It is Monte Carlo at the end of the day. It is a rally where you have to keep a little bit of a margin, especially with changeable conditions like we have. Like I said at the start I want to finish if I can, so it’s not an all-out risk for the win. That said anything can happen and of course, we are still taking risks but trying to manage them.”

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Reflecting on his charge up the leaderboard having started the day sitting in third, Ogier added: “I have been trying my best since the start of the event but last night was not a great start for me.

“I’m glad that today we managed to be faster. At the end of the day, it is great to be much closer to him [Evans] and the rest of the weekend looks interesting.”