Welsh star battles tough conditions to move closer in WRC title fight.
Fifth place at the inaugural WRC Rally Latvia meant that Elfyn outscored the FIA World Rally Championship leader for the third event in a row, each time closing the gap at the top of the championship standings.
The second high-speed event in quick succession, road position on Rally Latvia was a significant factor on the loose gravel stages and lots of single pass roads, meaning competitors running at the front were penalised heavily.
The event started in the capital Riga, with a track-based super-special stage on Thursday night before a full day of stages on Friday that brought crews back to the service park in Liepaja.
Running second on the road on Friday, Elfyn did well relative to his championship rivals and delivered a series of solid times during the opening day. The feeling with his GR Yaris Rally1 was positive and he pushed hard throughout the stages to maintain a strong pace and finish the day in seventh.
Saturday’s road position was marginally better but he still faced a significant amount of loose gravel as the roads cleaned and became faster with each passing car. He delivered a strong performance on Saturday morning but struggled with the rhythm in the afternoon and wasn’t able to maintain the positive progress, although he did climb one place to sixth.
Elfyn continued to push on Sunday and set a series of decent times to finish fourth in the Sunday points classification and close the gap to within 13 points of the championship leader.
Next up is the third fast gravel event in a row, and the Toyota Gazoo Racing’s home round at Secto Rally Finland from 1-4 August.
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