ELFYN Evans felt that he and co-driver Daniel Barritt had missed an opportunity at Rally Italia Sardegna - having had the speed to challenge for another top result, before a small but costly mistake halted their charge through the early stages.

Up until the 13 kilometre mark of Friday’s opening speed test (SS2), Evans was amongst the fastest through the challenging terrain. But the luckless Welshman clipped a bank and broke a steering arm.

Having the necessary spares to affect a repair mid-stage, the pairing got the job done remarkable quickly, but were then tasked with the unenviably job of sweeping a clean line through the loose gravel over the remainder of the weekend.

Evans, of Dinas Mawddwy, will use the summer break to regroup, before returning to Rally Finland, where he secured a sensational second spot behind the wheel of the top-specification Fiesta last year.

“It’s been a frustrating weekend - especially as the feeling in the car was really good on Friday morning,” said Evans. “A relatively small error proved to be pretty costly, and when you drop 13 minutes, there is very little left to fight for.

“We managed to salvage a point from the Power Stage which was some consolation, and now we’ll have a few weeks off, before getting ourselves fully focused ahead of the next one in Finland.”

M-Sport Team Principal, Malcolm Wilson OBE, added: “Elfyn had the speed to challenge for the top results, and the team will take a lot of confidence from that, knowing that the Fiesta could have had three crews fighting for the podium.

“They were caught out by the difficult stages, but I know they’ll be determined to come back strongly. They did extremely well in Finland last year, and I’m confident we will have a strong package with which to tackle the famous jumps there.”

Thierry Neuville had snatched a thrilling victory at Rally Italia when edging WRC title rival Sébastien Ogier in an electrifying shootout in the final speed test.

He trailed Ogier by 0.8sec ahead of the 6.96km test, but delivered a daredevil drive in his Hyundai i20 to overhaul the Frenchman and claim his third win of the season by 0.7sec. He extended his championship lead over Ogier to 27 points.

It was the third smallest winning margin in the WRC’s 45-year history, matching Neuville’s dramatic success in Argentina last year, when he performed a similar snatch and grab on Elfyn Evans.

The Belgian started the sun-kissed short final leg along Sardinia’s north-west coast 3.9sec adrift of Ogier. He won the opening three, tests before both drivers threw caution to the wind in the finale.

Both made mistakes on the dusty, rocky tracks but Neuville emerged on top.

The results remain provisional after a bizarre incident at the finish of the penultimate stage when Ogier hurriedly departed in his Ford Fiesta without collecting his time card. It was later delivered to him by Ott Tänak and news is awaited on whether Ogier will receive a penalty.

Finn Esapekka Lappi comleted the podium in a Toyota Yaris, and New Zealander Hayden Paddon finished fourth in an i20. Norwegian Mads Østberg’s Citroen C3 was fifth and Irisham Craig Breen completed the top six in another C3.

The Championship takes a mid-season break before it resumes on the fast gravel roads of Rally Finland, on 26-29 July.