ELFYN Evans and co-driver Scott Martin remain second in the FIA World Rally Championship standings after finishing fourth overall on Rally Estonia, and taking second place in the Power Stage.

His Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team had a fantastic final day, with a podium finish for Sébastien Ogier, a Power Stage win for Kalle Rovanperä and six out of six stage wins for the Yaris WRC.

Ogier has increased his drivers’ championship lead, and is now nine points in front of team-mate Evans in the standings, while Toyota also still remains out front in the manfuacturers’ standings.

“I’m not fully satisfied at the end of the rally, but we’ve come away with fourth overall and second place in the Power Stage,” said the Dinas Mawddwy man, who had won Sunday’s opening stage.

“There was obviously good pace there at points, but I was just unable to deliver it consistently. We made some changes overnight, and in the slippery conditions this morning it seemed to be a bit better.

“Then I struggled when it got quite rough, but it seems to always be a compromise here. Like always there’s some things we can work on, but at the end of the day we’re here after a difficult weekend with a decent haul of points.”

Day two had seen Evans experience tyre trouble on SS7, but he was able to maintain his position in the top five.

“The second day had started very well for us, everything was working well in the car,” commented Evans. “Later on in the morning I made a few small errors, and that cost me my rhythm a little bit.

“I think the conditions were also very slippery, and then I was braking too early or braking too late, and that’s very costly.

“In the afternoon, we were nearing the end of the first stage of the loop and the tyre let go. We only lost a few seconds, but we had to do the rest of the loop with no spare wheel, so we were trying to balance speed with not taking crazy risks.”

World champion Ott Tänak claimed a popular home victory at Estonia’s first-ever FIA World Rally Championship round, with the Hyundai i20 driver leading the three-day event for virtually the whole way to win by 22.2sec from team-mate Craig Breen. Ogier finished third in the Toyota Yaris, a further 4.7sec adrift.

Kalle Rovanperä won the live TV Wolf Power Stage in a Yaris to collect five bonus points. Evans was second to claim four points, with Tänak taking three in third. Ogier clinched two points in fourth and Breen secured the final point in fifth.

Estonia was the 600th WRC round since the Championship began in 1973, and marked the series’ return after a six-month pause due to Covid-19 pandemic.