Elfyn Evans is still in the driving seat to win the World Rally Championship after a solid display in very tough driving conditions during day two.

The 31-year-old from Dolgellau is in fourth place at Italy’s Rally Monza, 5.1 seconds behind main rival for the title Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sébastien Ogie.

Hyundai Motorsport’s Dani Sordo leads the way, a second ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Finnish driver, Esapekka Lappi, 12 seconds ahead of third-placed Ogier and 17.1 seconds better than Evans.

Even tougher conditions are expected on day three on Saturday.

The roads in the foothills of the Italian Alps, near Lake Como, were white when competitors practised them on Wednesday, and more wintry weather is due ahead of the second leg.

Friday’s forecast indicates snow falling above 600 metres, which could affect large parts of Saturday’s stages. The day’s high point is in the 22.17km Costa Valle Imagna stage, which climbs to 1,340 metres above sea level, while the opening Selvino test tops 1,100 metres.

Up to 40cm of snow has been predicted but as temperatures rise during the day, it remains unclear how much will melt.

Evans, who did everything he had to do on day two, said: “It’s been a very difficult day, conditions have been pretty bad out there.

“We’ve made a couple of mistake already in shakedown, and I realised how easy it is to make mistakes, and while we’ve not been spectacularly fast, we’ve not been far off and I managed to keep the mistakes to a minimum, only small errors.

“It’s not been a bad day, it’s not been a perfect day, but pretty ok.

“We are pushing it out there but when conditions are like this when you start to take a few chances the risk really goes through the roof.

“It’s about balance, being quick and clean and tidy.”

He added: “Tomorrow we probably haven’t got the tyres we need on the car, not having been in the allocation for the weekend for the conditions we’re going to have tomorrow, so that’s going to make things difficult.”