Welsh WRC star and 2017 Rally GB winner Elfyn Evans was holding a solid third place midway during the first day of this year’s Rally Mexico until it all went wrong on Stage 4, Ortega, when he lost control of his Ford Fiesta WRC and hit a bank before rolling multiple times.
“[We were] in sixth gear we hit a bad bump which threw the car into the air. The back end came round and I had no power to pull us out. We hit a bank and went over quite a few times,” Evans said.
Despite this the Fiesta WRC was still drivable and the pair cleared the stage and drove the following one too, loosing just 2m 30s from the entire accident and subsequent slower running on Stage 5.
"To be honest, I couldn't believe how little damage there was on the car after what happened," added the Welshman.
But when the crew go into service it was apparent that co-driver Dan Barritt was much worse for wear than the car and he was immediately rushed to hospital with suspected concussion.
"The problem right now is with Dan, we've had to take him to hospital with concussion," Ford M-Sport team boss Malcolm Wilson said after withdrawing the pair from the event on safety grounds.
"He definitely won't be continuing this afternoon. The guys can definitely fix the car but unfortunately we can't continue because of Dan's situation, we can't take the risk. It's a bit confusing at the minute because it was very high speed, [Evans] managed to control the car after the bumps, then he went wide on the next corner and he hit a bank.
"There is extensive damage to the left-hand side and quite a lot of suspension damage as well so it has taken a huge impact."
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