Elfyn Evans

Elfyn Rhys Evans (born 28 December 1988) is a Welsh rally driver. He is currently teamed with Scott Martin and is competing for Toyota Gazoo Racing in the World Rally Championship.

Elfyn Evans
Evans in 2017
Born	(1988-12-28) 28 December 1988 Dolgellau, Wales
Father	Gwyndaf Evans
World Rally Championship record
Active years	2007, 2011, 2013–present
Co-driver	Richard Edwards Andrew Edwards Phil Pugh Sebastian Marshall Daniel Barritt Giovanni Bernacchini Craig Parry Phil Mills Scott Martin
Teams	M-Sport Toyota GR
Rallies	137
Championships	0
Rally wins	8
Podiums	36
Stage wins	173
Total points	1362
First rally	2007 Wales Rally GB
First win	2017 Wales Rally GB
Last win	2023 Rally Japan
Last rally	2024 Central European Rally

Career

The son of 1996 British Rally Championship Champion and former WRC driver Gwyndaf Evans, he is sponsored by the family Ford motor dealership in Dolgellau, first established by his great-grandfather in Dinas Mawddwy, renamed to Gwyndaf Evans Motors in 1983.

Evans began his professional career in 2007, driving a Group N production-car-class Ford Fiesta in the Ford Fiesta Sporting Trophy. He also competed in that year's Rally GB in Wales.

In 2010 Evans won the British Junior Rally championship and was the winner of the UK Ford Fiesta Trophy series, also he won the Pirelli Star Driver Shoot-out after two days of tests and assessments at the Sweet Lamb rally complex in his native Wales, with a prize of a fully funded season in a Pirelli-backed Group N Subaru Impreza run by the championship-winning TEG Sport team – a prize worth in excess of £200,000.

Final Donut; Llandudno, October 2017

In 2012, Evans secured the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) Academy title, the R2 title in the British Rally Championship (BRC) and the UK Fiesta Sport Trophy. In addition, he won the end-of-year FST International Shootout. In 2013 he contested a programme of WRC events in a 4WD car – his prize for winning the WRC Academy – and worked at M-Sport, helping to develop rally cars for the WRC and other championships.

His 2013 season began with the first round of the Australian Rally Championship, the National Rally in Canberra, in which he retired early on the first day. He then drove a Fiesta RRC on the WRC Rally of Portugal, retiring with a transmission problem before starting the final day under Rally 2 regulations. To his surprise, he was then asked to compete on the Rally Italy in Sardinia in a Ford Fiesta World Rally Car after Nasser Al-Attiyah was forced to withdraw because of commitments in Qatar. Despite having never competed on the event before, using Nasser's co-driver, competing in a WRC car for the first time and with no pre-event testing, Evans finished sixth.

Evans switched to M-Sport for the 2014 season to drive a Ford Fiesta WRC as the teammate of veteran Mikko Hirvonen. His best results have been fourth at Mexico and Germany. The driver scored two podiums in 2015, finishing 7th in the overall standings.

M-Sport dropped Evans to the WRC-2 in 2016. Driving a Ford Fiesta R5, scoring wins at Monte Carlo, Sweden and Tour de Corse. He also won the 2016 British Rally Championship with five wins in seven races, also driving the Ford Fiesta R5.

Elfyn Evans and Daniel Barritt in their Ford Fiesta WRC for the 2018 Rallye Deutschland

For 2017, Elfyn rejoined the M-Sport World Rally Team to drive the DMACK car. He started the year with sixth in Monte Carlo, setting several fastest stage times, and then repeated the performance in Sweden. After two disappointing rounds in Mexico and Corsica, at round five in Argentina, Evans benefited from misfortune for his rivals to end day one with a minute's lead. On day two, Evans struggled with punctures, a spin and a damaged diffuser, and saw his lead fall to just 11 seconds. On the final stage, it was a straight battle between him and Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville. He pushed early in the stage, but lost several seconds when he hit a bridge. He tried hard to make up the lost time, but in the end he lost his first victory by just 0.7 seconds to Neuville. In Finland, Evans was left to uphold team honors after a crash for teammate Sébastien Ogier and a puncture for Ott Tänak. He dutifully set consistent top three stage times and snatched second place on the last stage from Juho Hänninen, in what many journalists described as the best drive of his career so far. At the penultimate round on his home rally in Wales, Evans took advantage of his DMACK tyres, which were widely suited to the conditions, to take his first WRC victory, the first for a Welsh driver, and the first for a British driver on Wales Rally GB since the late Richard Burns in 2000. He would finish the championship in fifth place.

Evans on his way to victory at the 2020 Rally Sweden

Evans would later repeat the success he found in Wales with a second career victory in the 2020 Rally Sweden, during his first season with Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, where he led the rally despite adverse weather conditions which forced the organisers to abridge the event to just nine stages. This marked his first win in Sweden, his first rally win for Toyota, and the first British driver to win the event. His victory in Sweden also allowed him to lead the points standings in the WRC driver's championship for the first time in his career. He eventually finished the year in second position in the Covid-abbreviated championship, helped by a second rally win of the season in the 2020 Rally Turkey. He finished the season eight points behind champion Sébastien Ogier, and nine points ahead of Ott Tänak, who finished third.

During the 2021 World Rally Championship, his second season with Toyota, Evans won two further WRC events, in Portugal and Finland, and finished in second position in five others. He remained in contention for the title until the final rally of the season, but finished that event in second position to championship winner and Toyota teammate Ogier with only a 0.6-second time difference. For the second year in a row, Evans finished the championship in second position, 23 points behind Ogier and 31 points ahead of third-placed Thierry Neuville.

During the 2022 World Rally Championship, his third season with Toyota, teammate Kalle Rovanperä secured the drivers' championship title. Evans didn't secure any wins this season, but with 4 podium finishes, ended the championship in 4th position. Evans contributes his dry spell in 2022 to not adapting to the new hybrid cars introduced at the start of the season, admitting others adapted better, but he was determined to improve for the 2023 season with hopes to challenge for the title.

The 2023 World Rally Championship saw a return to glory for Evans, securing 3 rally wins, in Croatia Rally, Rally Finland and Rally Japan, in order to secure the runner-up spot behind teammate and championship winner Kalle Rovanperä.

WRC victories

#	Event	Season	Co-driver	Car
1	73. Dayinsure Wales Rally GB 2017	2017	Daniel Barritt	Ford Fiesta WRC
2	68th Rally Sweden	2020	Scott Martin	Toyota Yaris WRC
3	13. Marmaris Rally of Turkey	2020	Scott Martin	Toyota Yaris WRC
4	54° Rally de Portugal	2021	Scott Martin	Toyota Yaris WRC
5	70th Rally Finland	2021	Scott Martin	Toyota Yaris WRC
6	3º Croatia Rally	2023	Scott Martin	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
7	72nd Rally Finland	2023	Scott Martin	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
8	8th Rally Japan	2023	Scott Martin	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Results

WRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Pos.	Points
2007	Elfyn Evans	Ford Fiesta ST	MON	SWE	NOR	MEX	POR	ARG	ITA	GRE	FIN	GER	NZL	ESP	FRA	JPN	IRE	GBR 42	NC	0
2011	Elfyn Evans	Ford Fiesta R2	SWE	MEX	POR	JOR	ITA	ARG	GRE	FIN Ret	GER	AUS	FRA 16	ESP	GBR Ret				NC	0
2013	Qatar M-Sport WRT	Ford Fiesta RRC	MON	SWE	MEX	POR 23	ARG	GRE											12th	20
		Ford Fiesta RS WRC							ITA 6
		Ford Fiesta R5								FIN Ret	GER 6	AUS	FRA 11	ESP Ret	GBR 8
2014	M-Sport WRT	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	MON 6	SWE Ret	MEX 4	POR 22	ARG 7	ITA 5	POL 35	FIN 7	GER 4	AUS 8	FRA 6	ESP 14	GBR 5				8th	81
2015	M-Sport WRT	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	MON 7	SWE 6	MEX 4	ARG 3	POR 64	ITA 4	POL Ret	FIN 12	GER 6	AUS 9	FRA 2	ESP 34	GBR 6				7th	89
2016	M-Sport WRT	Ford Fiesta R5	MON 8	SWE 9	MEX	ARG 17	POR 30	ITA	POL 13	FIN 11	GER	CHN C	FRA 11	ESP	GBR WD	AUS			21st	6
2017	M-Sport WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	MON 6	SWE 6	MEX 9	FRA 21	ARG 2	POR 6	ITA Ret	POL 8	FIN 2	GER 6	ESP 7	GBR 1	AUS 5				5th	128
2018	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	MON 6	SWE 14	MEX Ret	FRA 5	ARG 6	POR 2	ITA 14	FIN 7	GER 25	TUR 12	GBR 20	ESP 3	AUS 6				7th	80
2019	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	MON Ret	SWE 5	MEX 3	FRA 3	ARG Ret	CHL 4	POR 5	ITA 4	FIN WD	GER	TUR WD	GBR 5	ESP 6	AUS C			5th	102
2020	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	MON 3	SWE 1	MEX 4	EST 4	TUR 1	ITA 4	MNZ 29										2nd	114
2021	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	MON 2	ARC 5	CRO 2	POR 1	ITA 2	KEN 10	EST 5	BEL 4	GRE 6	FIN 1	ESP 2	MNZ 2					2nd	207
2022	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	MON 21	SWE Ret	CRO 5	POR 2	ITA 40	KEN 2	EST 2	FIN 4	BEL 2	GRE Ret	NZL Ret	ESP 6	JPN 5				4th	134
2023	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	MON 4	SWE 5	MEX 3	CRO 1	POR Ret	ITA 4	KEN 3	EST 4	FIN 1	GRE 2	CHL 3	EUR 31	JPN 1				2nd	216
2024	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	MON 3	SWE 2	KEN 4	CRO 2	POR 6	ITA 4	POL 2	LAT 5	FIN Ret	GRE 18	CHL 2	EUR 2	JPN				3rd*	185*

* Season still in progress.

WRC Academy results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	Pos.	Points
2012	Elfyn Evans	Ford Fiesta R2	POR 7	GRE 1	FIN 1	GER 1	FRA 1	ESP 3	1st	144

WRC-2 results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Pos.	Points
2013	Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team	Ford Fiesta RRC	MON	SWE	MEX	POR 8	ARG	GRE	ITA								7th	65
		Ford Fiesta R5								FIN Ret	GER 2	AUS	FRA 2	ESP Ret	GBR 1
2016	M-Sport	Ford Fiesta R5	MON 1	SWE 1	MEX	ARG 4	POR 14	ITA	POL 2	FIN 3	GER	CHN C	FRA 1	ESP	GBR	AUS	2nd	120

ERC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pos	Points
2016	DMACK British Rally Team	Ford Fiesta R5	CAN	IRE Ret	GRE	AZO	YPR	EST	POL	ZLI	LIE	CYP	NC	0

External links

• Elfyn Evans at Rallye-info.com
• Elfyn Evans at eWRC-results.com
• Athlete profile of Elfyn Evans on Redbull.com

• Gwyndaf Evans Motors