Elfyn Evans has been handed the Rally Chile lead after World Rally Championship officials issued an adjustment to the notional stage one time awarded to the Toyota driver.
Evans had ended Friday’s six stages trailing Hyundai’s Ott Tanak by 0.4s, but a change in the notional time awarded to the Welshman for the interrupted opening stage has put Evans into a three second lead.
Only Thierry Neuville, Tanak and Sébastien Ogier successfully navigated through stage one (Pulperia, 19,72km) before officials were forced to cancel the test on spectator safety grounds.
Notional times based on Neuville’s effort were awarded to the rest of the Rally1 field, who were forced to complete the stage in road mode. This was, however, subject to revision after the second pass of the test later in the day.
Following these runs, the clerk of the course received a request to review the allocated time awarded to Evans.
After reviewing the times posted in the second pass of the stage, Evans, M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux and Toyota’s Sami Pajari have been issued new notional times for stage one.
As a result, Evans' new time was two seconds faster than Tanak instead of being 1.4s slower, handing the Toyota driver the rally lead.
Evans started Friday strongly to lead the rally heading into midday service with a 2.2s advantage over Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanpera.
Evans then appeared too struggle for confidence in the afternoon before issuing a crucial fightback on the day’s final stage.
Speaking before the reallocation of national times, Evans said: “I think the afternoon could have been better. I think the feeling in the morning was quite okay but I struggled a bit in the afternoon.
“I couldn’t really find the confidence I was hoping for, at least the feeling was not the same as the morning.
“It was pretty much the same car as the morning but I think it was the conditions and the way the car was behaving in those conditions really.
“It is early days in this rally and we know how pivotal the Saturday was last year, so there is a big day ahead.”
Why Rovanpera struggled on Chile's roads
Reigning world champion Kalle Rovanpera admitted that a combination of driving style and setup was the reason for his struggles on Friday.
Rovanpera won stage three by a tenth of a second from Evans but largely found the going tough on the slippery gravel stages.
The Finn made a rare error on stage four resulting in his GR Yaris overshooting a right hander, but luckily he only lost a handful of seconds.
Despite struggling to gel with the tricky road surface Rovanpera end the day in third, 10.1s adrift of leader Evans.
“I’m happy the day is over it has not been such a comfortable feeling but I tried to keep out of trouble and get a bit better feeling. It was not the easiest of days but we are here,” said Rovanpera.
“I’m just not really comfortable with the car in these conditions. I know it is mainly my driving style, it is not really easy to follow this narrow line which you need to do here and combined with not feeling so comfortable, it is bit of a struggle.
“The way you need to drive these roads is completely opposite to how I drive on gravel so it is really not working, but also the setup combined makes for a not so comfortable feeling."
