ELFYN Evans and co-driver Daniel Barritt stormed to a sensational second place at the Neste Rally Finland – securing the Ecoboost-powered M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC’s 12th podium result of the year.

Having missed their pre-event test, the pair struggled with the balance of their DMACK-shod Ford Fiesta WRC through the opening day - languishing in seventh position after the opening 13 stages.

But as the conditions improved, Evans found a more favourable set-up and the confidence to boot. With his newfound momentum, the Dolgellau ace became the field’s comeback kid, and set a number of consistently strong times – including the fastest time through second pass of Paijala (SS21) – to climb five places to second.

Starting the final day’s action in fourth place, Evans was locked in an intense battle for the podium - 1.3 seconds adrift of third and 5.6 seconds adrift of second.

As the fight entered the final stage, Evans was in third place – 0.9 seconds shy of equalling his best result of the season.

Posting the second fastest time, he secured second by just 0.3 seconds to claim his first podium on the legendary roads.

“We’re really chuffed to come away from Rally Finland with second place overall - especially as that wasn’t looking likely at all on Friday evening,” said Evans.

“We kept at it, kept pushing and managed to claw our way back up the leader board. It’s a really positive way to finish.

“Friday was a very difficult day for us, after we had started without a test, and were really struggling with the balance of the car throughout that opening day.

“We made some changes which helped quite a lot and the longer stages and drier conditions helped too. We started making our way up the order. It went from there.

“Going into this morning, it was a very difficult situation to be in. There was an element of wanting to push for the best result, but at the same time it was also important to secure good points for the team.

“It wasn’t an all-out attack, but it all worked out in the end. It’s not the win, but it’s still a strong weekend and we can be pleased with the job we have done.”

The Welshman triumphed in a thrilling fight with Juho Hänninen and Teemu Suninen to finish second, matching his career-best result in Argentina in April.

He and Barritt had to balance aggression with caution during Sunday’s final four speed tests to ensure he didn’t throw away vital manufacturers’ championship points for M-Sport World Rally Team.

After Sébastien Ogier’s crash and Ott Tänak’s time-consuming puncture on Friday, Evans headed the M-Sport attack and knew he couldn’t risk all and jeopardise the team’s points lead in the standings.

“I think there was an element that I was going to go for it, but there was a bit of a difficult situation. It’s very important for M-Sport to win the manufacturers’ title this year and they wanted to make sure they collected the points,” Evans said.

“So for sure I wanted to go for it, but it wasn’t going to be as crazy as the attack I had in Argentina. I left nothing at the top of El Condor when I had the chance of that win, whereas today I tried to be a bit smart and drive well and straight.”

Esapekka Lappi and Tommi Makinen’s Toyota team meanwhile claimed a home victory on Rally Finland, in only Lappi’s fourth start in a World Rally Car.

The reigning WRC2 champion took the lead of the event on Saturday when team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala retired with an ECU failure on his Toyota Yaris WRC.

Latvala started to pull away from Lappi over Saturday’s stages and the gap was up to 8.5 seconds when he retired on Ouninpohja, leaving Lappi and co-driver Janne Ferm to manage a lead of nearly a minute over an epic battle for second place.

There was more drama near the finish as Lappi took a chunk out of the rim on the rear of his Yaris on the penultimate stage, but he held on to win by 36 seconds.