By Paul Evans

Elfyn Evans showed flashes of speed on Rally Spain today, but having been as high as a challenging fourth mid-way through the opening day, the Dolgellau ace had slipped down to seventh by the end of the gravel stages.

A couple of half spins cost Evans and co-driver Scott Martin vital seconds through the opening loop, but a strong run through the first pass of ‘La Fatarella-Vilalba’ (SS3) promoted them to fourth place going into the afternoon.

Starting the second loop just 10 seconds adrift of the lead, the M-Sport Ford pairing were on a mission but couldn’t muster the same rhythm and suffered a misfire through the final stage (SS6).

Dropping more than 30 seconds in his Fiesta WRC, Evans ended the day 44 seconds adrift of the lead – leaving him with a lot of work to do on the two days of Tarmac action that remain.

Sébastien Loeb leads the event, the nine-time World Champion heading an early Hyundai one-two-three ahead of team-mates Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo. Meanwhile Ott Tänak has moved a step closer to his first world title, ended the day fifth in his Toyota Yaris after his closest rival, Sébastien Ogier, lost almost four minutes when a hydraulic pipe came loose on his Citroën C3, leaving the Frenchman with no power steering.

“It was shaping up to be a pretty good fight, but it didn’t go our way in the end,” said Evans. “We had some speed at times, but then we had a pretty bad misfire on the last stage. We managed to change a few things on the road section and get it going again so it’s just one of those things – and we’ll need to make sure we’re on it from the word go when the action moves to Tarmac tomorrow.”