By Paul Evans

Elfyn Evans impressively fought back from 43rd to 14th on day two of the Rally Italia Sardegna in his M-Sport run Ford Fiesta WRC.

You might have thought that the 13 minutes lost by replacing a broken steering arm mid-stage yesterday had been enough of a penalty, but the 29-year old Dolgellau driver then had to run first on the road on Saturday – a hazardous position on the worst of the loose gravel, with a battle back up the leaderboard on your hands.

Co-driven by Daniel Barritt, Evans did all that was asked of him on day two of the event – gaining experience of the new Sardinia stages and bringing the car home ahead of the final day of competition on Sunday.

“It’s never an easy situation to be in when you’re opening the road and not in a fight,” said Evans. “There were some tricky sections today, so we just had to focus on getting through without any mistakes.”