A Welsh Hero and a New Five Time World Champion – Wales Rally GB 2017

Wales Rally GB 2017 will go down in the history books of the World Rally Championship and will be remembered for years to come. With Elfyn Evans taking his first WRC win on home stages and Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport team sealing the Manufacturers title, the final stop line alongside Llyn Brenig was very emotional for British motorsport fans. There was also a show of pure joy and emotion from Sebastien Ogier after claiming his fifth World Championship; the French man broke out in tears after the Brenig stage on Sunday afternoon.

Thursday’s shakedown stage in Clocaenog forest gave the teams a crucial chance to test their setups in a competitive environment for the first time in Wales. From the start Elfyn Evans looked quick, the welshman completed the 3.32km test in the fastest time and was the only driver to go sub-two minutes.

Shakedown took place in Clocaenog forest on Thursday morning.

The rally got underway on Thursday evening below the floodlights of the Tir Prince Raceway in Towyn. A pre-stage autograph session enabled fans to get up and close to the drivers.

The stage was only 1.49 km and was won by Sebastien Ogier in his Ford Fiesta RS – so it would be he who would take a slim 0.4 second lead over Jari-Matti Latvala into the first proper stage of the rally on Friday morning.

The rally’s first leg took place on Friday morning featuring a repeated loop of three stages – Myherin, Sweet Lamb and Hafren. Myherin is an incredibly fast stage with a very open section in the middle which allows the drivers to build a good rhythm. The sweet lamb stage, being only 4.24km takes place in and around the famous natural “bowl” in which thousands of spectators gather to see the cars for well over a kilometre. Hafren was the rally’s longest stage being just over 35km and would provide the crews with tough sections through the famous forests that are stooped in rallying history harking back to the days of the Lombard RAC rally of the 70s and 80s.

Elfyn Evans was on scintillating form during Friday morning and won two of the three stages in his D-Mack liveried Fiesta ending the loop with a 6.4sec lead over Estonian driver Ott Tanak with Irishman Kris Meeke another 9.3sec behind in the Citroen C3.

Elfyn Evans during Friday morning’s stages.

The crews then made their way to Newtown for a regroup and change of tyres before the second loop.

Evan’s dominance continued through Friday afternoon and under the chilly late-October sun he sailed away from the other drivers leaving team mates Ott Tanak and Ogier – who had moved up to 3rd by the end of Friday – in his wake. Tanak was feeling increasingly uncomfortable in his Fiesta as the balance of the car was not correct. Thierry Neuville, who received a ten second penalty for starting the first stage in Tir Prince late due to a problem with his i20 placed 4th overall after Friday’s last stage, just 10.3 seconds behind Ogier. Citroen’s Craig Breen did not finish Hafren 2 as he had made a small mistake and became stuck in a drainage ditch. Wales’ unforgiving stages turned a simple spin into an hour’s effort to get his C3 free before the Irishman had to retire from the day, he would return on Saturday however under Rally-2 rules.

Irishman Craig Breen had to retire from the day on Friday’s last stage Hafren 2 after becoming stuck in a drainage ditch.

Saturday provided the crews with a monster 17-hour day of stages in the Welsh forests. A huge 110km loop of stages without a service or tyre change was the championship’s longest this year. The day started just before 8am with runs through the Aberhirnant and Dyfnant stages – both very fast stages that would really wake the crews up.

Elfyn Evans picked up from his dominance on Friday to win both stages 8 & 9 by 2.5sec and 3.5sec respectively to stretch his lead to just over 36sec over Ott Tanak. An over-cautious Sebastien Ogier allowed Neuville to narrow the gap to just 2.6sec after Saturday’s first 2 stages.

The crews then moved on to a repeated loop of Gartheiniog and Dyfi, stages that nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb claimed are “the best stages in the world”.

After the first loop of the two stages Thierry Neuville had steamed past reigning champion Ogier and Ott Tanak into second place overall. Ogier said “I’m not ready to take enough risks… the only bad result this weekend would be not to score any points”, clearly he didn’t want to risk a mistake that would take the championship to the last round in Australia and wanted to seal it in Wales. Elfyn Evans was simply untouchable in the Dyfi forest – just a few miles from where he was brought up – he won both speed tests of the loop and extended his lead to nearly 50sec. Electrical problems for privateer Mads Østberg forced him to retire from the day in the Corris regroup.

Evans won the repeat of the Gartheiniog stage to extend his advantage further going into Saturday afternoon. Neuville pulled further away from Tanak in 3rd after winning the second running of the Dyfi stage. He lay 14.0sec ahead of the Estonian and a further 3.3sec ahead of Ogier after Saturday morning’s long loop.

Next came the Cholmondeley Castle stage in-front of the thousands of spectators who had turned up for the short test through the grounds of the stately home. The tight stage caught out Toyota driver Juho Hanninen who hit a bale of hay at high speed and damaged his suspension so was forced to retire for the rest of the day.

The crews then returned to the Deeside rally village for a service before heading out for the repeat of the Aberhirnant and Dyfnant stages – both would be run in the dark to make things even harder for the drivers.

It would not be Wales Rally GB without rain or fog. And, with Aberhirnant being high in the Welsh hills, the fog rolled in as the sun went down leaving the visibility in the stage terrible for the crews, with some parts being so bad, drivers struggled to see past the bonnet of their car.

Four time world champion Sebastien Ogier was caught out by the difficult conditions and hit a rock, leaving him with a puncture and a damaged brake disk. This forced the former mechanic to remove the disk before Dyfnant 2 and drive the second night stage with only three brakes. The Frenchman said “It is a miracle we are here now” after last the stage of Saturday – he later said that he feared for his championship chances after assessing the damage. Thierry Neuville struggled in the fog and dropped to 3rd, 0.5sec behind the three braked Fiesta of Ogier. A distraught Ott Tanak had the worst of the conditions and dropped from 3rd to 6th. Elfyn Evans did well in the horrendous conditions and finished the day 53.1sec ahead of Ogier.

The thick fog made the conditions very difficult for the crews during Saturday night’s two stages.

Jari-Matti Latvala took the stage win on Aberhirnant 2 in his Toyota Yaris before Evans took the honours on Dyfnant 2.

The rally’s final day, Sunday, featured stages in North Wales, not far from the Deeside rally village. The stages included a running of the Alwen and Brenig stages to start the day followed by a single running of the Gwydir stage for the first time since the 2013 event, followed by a second running of Alwen and Brenig with Brenig 2 being the end-of-rally power stage in which championship points would be on offer for the top five crews.

After losing his second position on Saturday night, Thierry Neuville was on a mission to regain his place and to keep his championship chances alive. After the first two stages of Sunday, he had passed Ogier on the leaderboard and was back into second position overall by 3.7sec from the Fiesta driver. With a massive cushion coming into the final day, rally leader Elfyn Evans could afford to take it easy and avoid making any mistakes. He finished Brenig 1 with a lead of 46.3sec to his nearest competitors.

Evans came to the final Power stage with a 43.1sec gap to Neuville in 2nd who was 6sec ahead of Ogier.

M-Sport needed to take four points from Wales Rally GB to seal their first manufacturers title in ten years. After Ott Tanak brought the Ford Fiesta WRC home in sixth position and claimed a vital eight points, there were emotional scenes back in the service park as M-Sport were crowned Manufacturer Champions 2017 – a massive feat for a privateer team. Team principle, Malcolm Wilson told WRC “It has been very emotional and there were a few tears during the last stage.” There was still more emotion to come from the Cumbrian based team with a possible drivers world championship to come as well as a first rally win for Elfyn Evans, whom Malcolm Wilson has mentored for many years.

M-Sport took the 2017 manufacturers title after an Ott Tanak sixth place.

As he was only lying 3rd overall, Sebastien Ogier was relying on taking some power stage points in order to leave Wales with the title. With teammate Tanak slowing down towards the end of the power stage to allow Ogier to gain the necessary points, Sebastien Ogier became World Rally Champion 2017 and there was a flood of emotion from him at the final stop line – the frenchman broke down in tears when being interviewed for WRC TV. “It’s been a tough year and we’ve all had to work very hard. It’s so amazing to be champion with M-Sport World Rally Team” said the champion after the final stage.

2017 World Rally Champion – Sebastien Ogier.

The final WRC crew into the final stage was Elfyn Evans and Dan Barritt, many thousands of fans had turned out at Llyn Brenig to see their home hero during his last few miles before victory. Elfyn finished the final stage safely and took the rally win. The scenes at the stop line on the shores of Llyn Brenig will go down in history as one of the most emotional moments the sport has ever seen. Hundreds of fans had gathered around the stop line and when Elfyn and Dan climbed onto their Fiesta’s roof, holding the Welsh flag, the whole area erupted with the sound of cheering and air horns. Wales had a new winner.

Wales Rally GB 2017 winners – Elfyn Evans and Dan Barritt

Pontus Tidemand eased to the WRC 2 victory in his Skoda Fabia R5 on his final rally of the year, having already clinched the WRC 2 championship a couple of rounds ago in Germany. Eric Camilli brought his Fiesta R5 home in 2nd place with home driver Tom Cave taking the final podium spot.

WRC 2 winner – Pontus Tidemand.

The event ran very smoothly thanks to the amazing effort of the volunteer marshals and the organising team. There were also a massive number of spectators at this years rally with ticket sales way up on last year’s event – carparks were full hours before the stage. This created a great atmosphere out on the stages especially with a home driver on track for his first WRC win on home stages, in-front of his fans.