Evans faces gravel conundrum in world title bid

Rewind 12 months.

Elfyn Evans was leading the World Rally Championship (WRC) after the first six races of the season.

The Welshman is in the same position this year and is determined to keep hold of his lead this time.

He's a five-time runner-up after being beaten to the championship by Sebastien Ogier in the final rally of the season in Saudi Arabia in 2025.

"We've been trying to fight for the title for a number of years now," said Evans.

"Last year was close but not close enough. It's all to play for again at this stage."

The 36-year-old has had a solid start to the 2026 campaign, winning Rally Sweden and finishing on the podium on three other occasions.

As the 14-race season approaches its halfway mark, Evans leads the championship by 12 points from his Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta going into Rally Japan, 28-31 May.

As he continues to battle it out for that elusive first world title, Evans knows he needs to up his game on gravel.

There were seven consecutive gravel rallies between May and September last season and his failure to win any of them ultimately cost him the title.

There have been two gravel rallies so far this season, with Evans finishing 13th in Safari Rally Kenya after being forced to retire on the third day, before finishing third in Portugal.

Rally Japan will be the final race of the season to be held on tarmac as the final seven rounds will all be on gravel.

"The dry gravel rallies were what we identified as perhaps the weakest point of our championships in the past," Evans explained.

"We've just had Rally Portugal and that seemed to go better.

"So some steps forward made but of course still a lot of those events to come. And we'll have to wait and see how that goes."

As championship leader, Evans will start Rally Japan first on the road, which should work in his favour.

But the same is not true for gravel rallies as the first car acts as a sweeper, brushing loose stones off the surface to leave a cleaner, faster line for the cars behind.

Extending his championship lead in Japan might in theory work against Evans, as he could then be forced to open the road on quite a few of the gravel rallies before the end of the season.

"As we know, the championship leader always has to open the road. And normally on a dry gravel rally that means that the road is being swept effectively, exposing harder ground and increasing grip for the later runners," Evans explained.

"What we saw last year was that we had a run of seven rallies in the mid to end of the season, and that really hampers the Championship leader and the opportunity there.

"Of course, things are much tighter in the Championship this year at this stage than they were last year, so it is very likely that we'll see the lead of the Championship change hands numerous times during the course of these seven last rounds of the year.

"But of course it will be more difficult for those leading the Championship to score well on those drag gravel runners."

Evans has had a lot of success in Rally Japan over the past few years.

He won the race in 2023 and 2024 before a second-place finish last year.

Usually held in October or November, this year's edition of the rally has been moved to May.

"It's held at a different time of the year so it could be more difficult inside the car, a bit warmer inside the car, but also for the tyres and brakes, so it could be more of a challenge," Evans added.

"It's quite a technical rally and it's one that's been good to us in the past. But of course, that guarantees nothing for the future.

"But it's a good event and a rally that really requires a lot of precision, very twisty, narrow roads, but that's the same for everyone."