(Reuters) – Toyota’s world championship leader Elfyn Evans crashed out of the Rally of Portugal on Friday, with team mate Kalle Rovanpera top of the timesheets after the opening leg.
Level on points with France’s Sebastien Ogier after four rounds, Evans was running in sixth place when the Welsh driver went off the dusty, rock-strewn road on the day’s penultimate Mortagua stage seven.
Evans and co-driver Scott Martin were unhurt after extracting themselves from the wreckage.
Rovanpera meanwhile won three of the day’s eight special stages to lead Hyundai’s Spanish driver Dani Sordo by 10.8 seconds.
“It has been a really good day,” said Finland’s reigning world champion. “We were fast but we also took care of the car and the tyres.”
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville was in third place, a further 15.2 seconds behind, with M-Sport Ford’s Pierre-Louis Loubet fourth after winning the opening stage and then having to deal with a fire in the car caused by a hot exhaust.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Clare Fallon)
