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M-Sport is confident Elfyn Evans’s co-driver Dan Barritt will be fit in time for the next World Rally Championship round in Corsica after being injured in their Mexico crash.
Barritt was diagnosed with mild concussion and advised not to continue after a sixth-gear roll on the rally’s fourth stage last Friday.
He is scheduled to participate in M-Sport’s pre-Tour of Corsica test from next Monday, and Autosport understands he is expected to to recover in time for the rally itself – which team principal Malcolm Wilson said was the main focus.
“It goes without saying that the priority is the rally – that’s where we need Dan fit,” said Wilson.
“I’m not so worried about the test. Let’s see how he feels next week.”
Evans admitted the accident was one of the biggest of his career.
“The cause of the crash was probably a bit of over-confidence in making the notes over the bumps,” Evans told Autosport.
“I should have taken some of the speed off, if we’d come down a gear we’d probably have got away with it, but we flew so far and landed on the next jump.
“These cars deal with things so well now – we’d had a really bad dip on the first stage, I dropped two gears and it felt like nothing.”
Evans was running third at the time of the crash. He initially continued before withdrawing at the next service when Barritt’s condition was assessed.
“It’s a real shame, we were settling in well and the times were there,” Evans added.
“I was a little bit disorientated in the crash. We rolled so quickly, I jumped out of the car and ran to slow down the next car.
“When the dust settled I saw the wheels were all still on the car and they were pointing in the right direction – so we jumped in and went.
“If I’d pushed the starter straight away, we might not even have lost 20 seconds.”