World Rally Championship: Elfyn Evans eyes 'realistic' title ahead of Acropolis Rally Greece
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World Rally Championship: 'We still have a massive gap to close' - Elfyn Evans
Elfyn Evans says winning the World Rally Championship (WRC) for the first time is a "far more realistic goal" after August's Rally Finland victory.
Evans trails leader Kalle Rovapera by only 25 points in the Championship table with four races remaining.
The drivers head into round 10 of the 13-rally Championship, the Acropolis Rally Greece, from 7-10 September.
"It turned out to be a pretty strong weekend with a lot of our challengers dropping out early on," Evans said.
Toyota Gazoo teammate and current world champion Rovapera crashed out on stage eight of his home rally in Finland, allowing Evans to take full advantage.
"We were happy to take the victory and it changes things quite a lot in the Championship fight," he told 大象传媒 Sport Wales.
"We're focusing on what it changes in the Championship fight, making winning it a far more realistic goal than it was when we entered Finland.
"We still have a big gap to close - 25 points is what you get for an event win. We still have a huge task in front of us, and Kalle is on great form. But we'll keep giving it all until the end of the year."
Evans, the 2020 and 2021 WRC runner up, finished fourth in the Championship standings in 2022, but his performances have been much more consistent this year.
As well as Rally Finland, the Welsh driver also won Rally Croatia and finished on the podium in Rally Mexico and Rally Kenya.
"We've got four different rallies coming up so anything can happen," Evans said.
"There's no specific target in terms of how many victories we need. We'll do our best in all of them and see how it ends out by the end of the year."
There will be a big difference between the conditions in Finland and Greece, with the smooth, fast roads giving way to some of the season's toughest tracks.
"We come from the back of one of the fastest gravel rallies on the calendar to one of the roughest," Evans said.
"Greece can be very hard and rocky on tyres, and loose rocks can easily damage the car. It's going to be quite a challenging event and quite a contrast of what we experienced in Estonia and Finland."