ELFYN Evans will try to turn things around and have a stronger rally in Sardinia. after a series of unfortunate events saw him finish sixth at Rally de Portugal over the weekend.

The Dolgellau driver endured a tough day on Friday with some of the most slippery conditions running second on the road. With a tyre off the rim in SS7 contributing to the time lost, he finished the day eighth overall.

He reached the end of Saturday in sixth position overall despite his difficult road position and issues with the balance of the car.

And Evans and co-driver Scott Martin finished sixth overall on Sunday to secure some important points.

They faced a further challenge after damage to the cooling package in the penultimate stage, but made repairs on the road section to ensure they reached the finish.

They remain second in the championship, 24 points from the leaders Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaegh in their Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid.

Evans said at the end: “This morning things were going a bit better than yesterday, but in the third stage we had a rock impact on the underside of the car that damaged the radiator.

“After that we had to get the car through in EV mode, and we managed to make a repair to get to the finish but unfortunately we didn’t get any extra points from the day.

“We definitely found a better feeling in the car but there are still a couple of areas to work on.

“At least we have some answers from the weekend. We’ll try to turn things around and have a stronger rally in Sardinia.”

The event was won by his Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sébastien Ogier who secured a second successive win with his record-breaking sixth victory in Portugal.

Just like in the previous round on the asphalt roads of Croatia, Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais triumphed after a thrilling and close battle on Portugal’s gravel stages.

Just one second from the lead at the end of Friday, Ogier took over at the front on Saturday morning as others hit trouble, and used all his experience to get through the longest day of the rally with an advantage of 11.9 seconds.

He increased his margin with a storming stage win in a foggy first test on Sunday morning, allowing him to apply more caution in the following tests and ultimately take victory by 7.9s ahead of Hyundai’s Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja.

Up next is Rally Italia Sardegna (May 31-Jun 2) which features fast but narrow gravel stages, where exposed rocks as well as trees at the side of the road can catch out the unwary. High temperatures combined with the abrasive surface places high stresses on the cars and tyres.