WELSH rally ace Elfyn Evans could take may positives from his latest outing in the FIA World Rally Championship at Vodafone Rally de Portugal.

Out to again prove their speed after coming close to a debut FIA World Rally Championship win in Argentina, Evans and Dan Barritt’s sixth place finish was their best result in Portugal.

Their M-Sport-prepared Ford Fiesta WRC performed faultlessly over the weekend, allowing the Brits to score power-stage points for the second rally in a row.

“It’s not been the overall result we had hoped for, but we pushed as hard as possible and would have been higher had we not encountered a few problems and mistakes,” reflected Evans.

“When everything was working well we proved the pace was once again at the front so there are a few positives to take from the event.”

The challenging terrain in Portugal delivered something of a mixed bag for the British pairing – flashes of speed offset with challenges.

When feeling comfortable behind the wheel of his DMACK-shod Fiesta, Evans hinted at what was achievable – less than a second adrift of the stage victory on a number of occasions.

A puncture, an off-road excursion and a struggle with inconsistent grip levels dropped him down the order, but he regrouped to take sixth place and an additional three points from the Power Stage at the end.

“It’s been a rally of ups and downs,” admitted Evans.

“It’s not been the perfect weekend, but there are plenty of good things to take.

“It wasn’t ideal that we made the mistake on Saturday, but when the going was good, so was the speed and we will take that positive.”

Evans had got the second day off to a positive start – just 0.2 seconds adrift of the fastest time through the first stage of the morning. But he then suffered a mixed bag over the course of the day.

Running wide after a hairpin-right on SS11 and having to take avoiding action to evade a stray rock, Evans went off the road on the following corner. The excursion saw the Welshman pick up a puncture and also suffer a broken damper, which he had to manage through the following speed test.

With his DMACK-shod Ford Fiesta WRC back to full health after the midday service break, the 28-year-old climbed from seventh to sixth whilst using the kilometres wisely to test the different configurations for the following events to come.

“We were really happy with the first stage [SS10], but it was not been so good after that,” said Evans.

“I made a mistake half way through the second stage [SS11] and was quite lucky to get back on the road. We did, but we drove to the end of the stage with a puncture and that then caused some damage to the damper – which hampered us for the longest stage of the loop.

“Moving on to the afternoon, we decided to try some different things and experimented within our package. It didn’t work out, but nothing ventured nothing gained and we did manage to get back up to sixth which is a real positive.”

Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia went on to secure their second win of the season, to increase his FIA World Rally Championship lead behind the wheel of their Ford Fiesta WRC.

The won by 15.6 secs from Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul, with Dani Sordo and Marc Marti a further 46.1 secs behind in third.

The Championship reaches its midpoint at Rally Italia Sardegna. The four-day gravel fixture will be based in Alghero from 8-11 June.