WRC race on knife-edge as Evans trails Ogier in Saudi

Another day of drama at Rally Saudi Arabia has left Elfyn Evans facing the prospect of narrowly missing out on the World Rally Championship (WRC) for a fifth time.

The 36-year-old Welshman will go into the final day of the season-ending rally in eighth place, while title rival Sebastien Ogier has risen up to sixth with just three stages to come on Saturday.

Evans took a three-point championship lead into this last round of the 14-rally series - but on current positions would be one point behind his Toyota team-mate before Saturday's final-day bonuses.

The British driver had dropped to 10th place after suffering a puncture on stage 11, but it was tyre problems for the rally's leading contenders on the last of Friday's stages that shook up the leaderboard, giving eight-time champion Ogier a potential four-point gain.

"It's all in the air," said Evans.

"It's all to play for so, of course, we have to be all in and see what we can do."

In all seven Rally1 cars suffered punctures on stage 14 of the Jeddah-based event, including Sami Pajari and Ott Tanak who both dropped down the standings leaving France's Adrien Formaux leading the rally by 2.4 seconds from Latvian Martins Sesks.

Ogier, who is bidding to equal Sebastien Loeb's record nine WRC titles, also finished the final run with a flat tyre, a problem which cost him fifth place overall behind another Toyota driver Kalle Rovanpera by just 0.2 seconds.

Evans previously finished as runner-up in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024 and is looking to become only the third British world champion.

He must now hope he can either whittle down his title rival's two minute and 39 seconds advantage, or take more bonus points than the 41-year-old Frenchman.

The top five drivers over all three of the final days stages are awarded five, four, three, two and one points. The same bonuses are applied for the rally's final 'power stage'.

Unfortunately for Evans, however, his record so far in Saudi is not encouraging. The Welshman has enjoyed only two top five placings this week - Ogier has finished in the top five on four stages, winning Thursday's stage eight.

1. Adrien Fourmaux (France), Hyundai, 2 hours 43 minutes 17.7 seconds

2. Martins Sesks (Latvia), Ford, +2.4secs

3. Thierry Neuville (Belgium), Hyundai, +5.8secs

4. Takamoto Katsuta (Japan), Toyota, +43.9secs

5. Kalle Rovanpera (Finland), Toyota, +1min 15.0secs

6. Sebastien Ogier (France), Toyota, +1min 15.2secs

7. Sami Pajari (Finland), Toyota, +1min 37.2secs

8. Elfyn Evans (Great Britain), Toyota, +3min 55.0secs

9. Gregoire Munster (Luxembourg), Ford, +6min 15.8secs

10. Oliver Solberg (Sweden), Toyota, +7min 29.1secs

Selected

11. Josh McErlean (Ireland), Ford, +7min 40.8secs

13. Gus Greensmith (Great Britain), Skoda, +8min 54.9secs

1. Elfyn Evans (Great Britain), Toyota, 272 points

2. Sebastien Ogier (France), Toyota, 269

3. Kalle Rovanpera (Finland), Toyota, 248

4. Ott Tanak (Estonia), Hyundai, 213

5. Thierry Neuville (Belgium), Hyundai, 166

6. Takamoto Katsuta (Japan), Toyota, 111

Selected

11. Josh McErlean (Ireland), Ford, 26

14. Gus Greensmith (Great Britain), Skoda, 14