DOLGELLAU driver Elfyn Evans is looking forward to a new challenge this week as round three of the 2021 FIA World Rally Championship, the Croatia Rally gets underway (22-25 April).

After Arctic Rally Finland, this will be another brand new event for the WRC, and is also set to be the first true asphalt rally – held without the winter conditions experienced on events like Rallye Monte-Carlo – since the 2019 season.

Toyota Gazoo makes its first visit to Croatia leading both the manufacturers’ and drivers’ standings and aiming to continue its strong recent record on asphalt with the Toyota Yaris WRC.

Elfyn said: “Croatia is an all-new event so we don’t know exactly what to expect.

“We’ve been able to study videos of the stages to learn as much as we can, but nothing can substitute actually being there on the recce and seeing the route for real.

“The stages look quite mixed, with some wide fast parts and some very narrow bumpy parts, and there could be quite a lot of cutting.

“So it looks like we need to be quite adaptable to the different surfaces and different character of stages that we’ll face.

“We don’t have masses of experience with this car on dry asphalt or with the Pirelli tyres, so in testing we were trying quite a few different settings.

“But the feeling in the car was generally positive straight away from the first runs.”

The Croatia Rally will be based in the capital city Zagreb and be run over a variety of different asphalt roads.

A mixture of worn and smooth surfaces is expected, and while some sections will be fast and flowing, other parts will be more narrow and twisting.

After a shakedown close to Zagreb on Thursday morning, the rally will begin on Friday morning with the first of 20 stages totalling 300 competitive kilometres over three days.

The first two days take place to the south-west of the city, each one consisting of two loops of four stages split by mid-day service.

Sunday then takes the crews north for a final pair of tests, both to be run twice.

Evans is currently fourth in the WRC standings on 31 points, eight points behind leader and team-mate Kalle Rovanperä.