DOLGELLAU driver Elfyn Evans goes into the first day proper of the Rally de Portugal in fine fettle after leading the way in yesterday’s shakedown.

Evans lost last month’s Croatia Rally to Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sébastien Ogier by just 0.6sec in the third closest FIA World Rally Championship finish in history, after a mistake at the last corner.

And the Welshman is upbeat about his chances against the seven times world champion as the rally kicks off this morning in Matosinhos on the edge of the country’s second largest city Porto.

The 32-year-old said: “There’s no doubt he’s very good, but there’s also no doubt we can beat him, if that makes sense.”

“It’s not an easy nut to crack,” he added. “Not only is he very fast, he’s very, very clever as well and I’m not going to make out that it’s going to be an easy job because I know it’s very difficult and very few people have managed it if you look at the record books.

“But we’ve shown on quite a few occasions we now have speed as well as just luck going our way to fight. We just keep trying.”

There was less than a second between the top five drivers in Thursday morning’s shakedown session with Evans posting the benchmark time in his Toyota in his fourth and final run through the 4.60km Paredes test, edging Ott Tänak’s Hyundai i20 by two-tenths.

Evans’ Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate, Kalle Rovanperä, was another tenth back in third while Japan’s Takamoto Katsuta made it three Yaris cars in the top four. FIA World Rally Championship leader Sébastien Ogier completed the top five, 0.9sec off the pace.

Following a one-two finish on the last event in Croatia, Toyota leads the manufacturers’ championship as well as the drivers’ standings, where Sébastien Ogier holds first place after two victories in the first three rallies of the season. Elfyn Evans is third, 10 points behind his team-mate, and Kalle Rovanperä fifth, within 22 points of the lead.