ELFYN Evans had mixed emotions after helping his new Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team achieve a double podium on Rallye Monte-Carlo - the first event with its all-new driver line-up.

Teammates Sébastien Ogier and Evans finished second and third respectively after strong performances on their Toyota Yaris WRC debuts, even though they ultimately missed out on victory in a three-way final-day fight.Rookie driver Kalle Rovanperä rounded out a positive weekend for the Toyota team, with a fine fifth place on his debut at rallying’s highest level.

“Obviously I feel a little bit disappointed today because I think we had the potential to win the rally,” said Evans. “It’s difficult, because when you lead the rally, your expectations are raised, and the win becomes the target of course.

“It’s generally been a positive weekend, but unfortunately, I didn’t quite the feeling that I needed. I was pushing hard, but the speed wasn’t coming so naturally."I wasn’t nailing every corner, and that cost us the handful of seconds we missed out by. We know we still have a little bit of learning to do, but overall it’s not a bad start and we can build on it.”

Quickly up to speed in their new cars, Ogier and Evans traded the lead with each other from Friday morning until Saturday afternoon. Evans led into the final day’s four stages with an advantage of 4.9 seconds over his team-mate. But their third-placed rival was only 1.5s further back, and posted a string of fastest times to deny the Toyota duo.

Ogier edged Evans for second place overall on the rally-ending Power Stage, where he just missed out on the fastest time by 0.012 seconds. His second place, together with co-driver Julien Ingrassia, represents a strong beginning to his bid for a seventh world rally title this season.Team Principal Tommi Mäkinen said: “It has been an excellent weekend for us. Of course, there is a small disappointment about today and missing out on the victory. We are always learning, and the drivers didn’t have the perfect feeling with the car this morning. We made some changes to the set-up later on, and they found good speed again at the end

“We are competing at the highest level, and it is so, so tight in the WRC. The overall result is still incredible for our first rally with our new drivers - not just to have Sébastien and Elfyn both on the podium, but also for Kalle to finish in fifth in his first rally at the top level. It is very promising for his future too.”