Evans suffers final stage tyre blow to hand Neuville Tour de Corse win

Tour de Corse results

Elfyn Evans has been cruelly denied victory at Tour de Corse by a tyre puncture on the Power Stage to hand Thierry Neuville victory and with it the World Rally Championship lead.

With Evans looking to defend an 11.5-second lead over Neuville on the Power Stage, his hopes were dashed midway through when he suffered a front-right puncture on his M-Sport Ford. The Welsh driver conceded almost 90 seconds to Power Stage winner Kris Meeke and was relegated from top spot to third place as he limped to the finish.

With Neuville taking a surprise victory, along with two points on the Power Stage, he moves into the championship lead ahead of Sebastien Ogier who was promoted to second place at the expense of his former M-Sport Ford teammate.

Evans can still take pride in his performance in third place with Hyundai’s Dani Sordo unable to vault on to the podium late on in fourth place.

Teemu Suninen held on to fifth place for M-Sport Ford 15 seconds clear of Ott Tanak, another to see his rally wrecked by a tyre puncture, with the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver losing two minutes on SS11 which dropped him from the lead of the event.

Esapekka Lappi claimed an underwhelming seventh place for Citroen at its home event with Sebastien Loeb struggling to ninth eighth place on his return for Hyundai.

Meeke was unable to recover from mechanical issues which plagued his opening day at Tour de Corse for Toyota as he ended five minutes behind the winner in ninth place but did take the late honour of victory on the Power Stage. Jari-Matti Latvala rounded out the points places in 10^th for Toyota.