ELFYN Evans suffered disappointment in the first round of the WRC championship after losing 20 minutes after going off the road.

Up till then the Dolgellau driver had been in contention for the lead on Saturday, day three of four at Rallye Monte-Carlo.

On the final day he set his sights on scoring bonus points in the Power Stage and completed a one-two in the stage for the GR YARIS Rally1 with Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sébastien Ogier in their new GR YARIS Rally1.

The rally was won by Sébastien Loeb, who became the oldest winner of an FIA World Rally Championship round after grabbing a remarkable victory from under the nose of old foe Ogier on Sunday.

The 47-year-old Frenchman trailed Ogier by almost half a minute heading into the penultimate speed test of the four-day event in the French Alps.

But when Ogier limped to the finish with a front left puncture, Loeb reclaimed a lead he had conceded to his compatriot on Saturday. He stayed calm through the final test to seal his eighth Monte-Carlo success in a Ford Puma by 10.5sec.

Loeb, starting his first WRC event for more than a year, was competing for the British M-Sport Ford squad in a one-off appearance. He joins Ogier at the top of the Monte-Carlo roll of honour with eight wins.

Evans said: “It’s been an encouraging weekend in some ways but it’s massively frustrating to make the error that was so costly yesterday.

“I had a good feeling in the car but that doesn’t count for much because we finish the rally with very few points, which is a disappointment.

“I had a pretty good run in the Power Stage but maybe towards the end I didn’t make the most of the hybrid system in the tricky conditions.

“Overall the team has done a really good job. We didn’t have a lot of testing but I found a much happier place with the car during the event. I think it performed really well without any issues, so a big thank you to the team.”

Rally Sweden is up next on 24-27 February, the only full winter event of the season taking place on snow and ice. This year the event moves further north to a new base in Umeå meaning all of the stages will be new to the drivers. Metal studs inserted into the tyres bite into the ice to provide grip and allow for some of the highest speeds of the year.