ELFYN Evans cut a frustrated figure ending the first day of Rally Italia Sardegna in fourth place.

The Dolgellau man was out of sorts this morning and languished in sixth, but better pace this afternoon enabled the winner of the previous round in Portugal to recover.

He ended more than a minute adrift of leader Ott Tänak.

The Toyota Yaris driver said after the end of the eighth stage: “Not great. We wanted more from the day. We’re still here, but not as quickly as we would have liked to be here."

Ott Tänak delivered a near-perfect performance to lead Hyundai Motorsport team-mate Dani Sordo after Friday’s punishing opening leg at Rally Italia Sardegna.

Tänak won five of the eight sun-kissed and rocky speed tests in his i20 World Rally Car to build a handy 19 second advantage over his Spanish colleague in this fifth round of the FIA World Rally Championship.

After dominating the previous round in Portugal only to retire from the lead, the Estonian was fastest out of the blocks on the Mediterranean holiday island. He won all four morning speed tests to lead by 16.9 seconds.

A fifth straight win was followed by a brace of second fastest times.

His only blot on the day was a delaminated front left tyre in the closing test, which cost a handful of seconds.

“The car has been behaving nicely since the beginning so I’ve been able to give a good rhythm,” said Tänak. “I knew the two Toyotas at the front might struggle so it was definitely our chance to build a gap. The more gap we have the better, so I keep pushing tomorrow as well.”

Standings after day one (SS8 /20): 1. Ott Tänak, Hyundai Motorsport, 1hr 26min 58.0sec; 2. Dani Sordo, Hyundai Motorsport, +19.4seconds; 3. Sébastien Ogier, Toyota Gazoo Racing, +36.2seconds; 4. Elfyn Evans, Toyota Gazoo Racing, +1minute 2 seconds; 5. Thierry Neuville, Hyundai Motorsport, +1minute 3.2seconds; 6. Takamoto Katsuta, Toyota Gazoo Racing, +1minute 26.1seconds