ELFYN Evans missed out on what could have been another victory behind the wheel of the M-Sport Ford Fiesta R5 Evo in the WRC 2 category of Rally Portugal.

Experiencing a technical problem, which sapped the Fiesta’s performance through Friday’s stages, Evans’ rivals had been given a rare opportunity to pull ahead.

Regaining full power on the Saturday, however, Evans made quick work of reeling in leader Pontus Tidemand - taking 7.2 seconds out of the Swede on SS11 alone.

Unfortunately, the charge was not to last and the team were denied another almighty comeback. Clipping a tree stump 11.3 kilometres into SS12, he rolled his Fiesta and was forced to accept Rally 2 regulations for the event’s final four stages.

Missing out on valuable points, Evans, from Dinas Mawddwy, and co-driver Craig Parry will determined to return with a point to prove at Rally Poland.

“There have obviously been a lot of snags this weekend, the most costly one coming from myself, so it’s not what we wanted,” said Evans. “We can’t turn the clock back, but we know that we had the pace to win this rally. Now, we have just got to look forward to Poland, where we’ll be aiming to put the record straight.”

On the first day, Evans was experiencing an unusual drain on the Fiesta’s performance – an issue which allowed his rivals to pull into the lead. With the team looking for nothing short of a victory, the turbo was changed in the hope of rectifying the problem ahead of the remaining action.

Through the second full day of competition, Evans had made quick work of reeling in first placed Pontus Tidemand.

Proving how dominant he could have been without his earlier issues, Evans was a man on a mission, but it wasn’t to last.

“Things had started much better on the second day. It was good to have the car back to normal performance and I think the pace showed that – despite not having to do anything silly – we would have been able to fight for the victory,” Evans said.

“Unfortunately, we had a bit of a pacenote error in SS12. I didn’t have a tree stump marked on the inside of a corner and it took the wheel off. That was the end of the day and it was clearly not the way we were planning to finish the event.”

Team Principal, Malcolm Wilson OBE, commented: “It was something of a missed opportunity. Even with his problems on Friday, Elfyn and the Fiesta had the speed to win, but an unfortunate pacenote error has halted their charge.

“I’m sure that both Elfyn and Craig will be even more determined than ever when they return to compete out in Poland.”