ELFYN Evans is looking to maintain his chances of a maiden World Rally Championship crown as his Toyota Gazoo Racing team head to Spain for the Rally de España on 15-17 October.

Going into the penultimate round of the championship, Evans now trails team-mate Sébastien Ogier by 24 points following the Dolgellau driver’s victory in the previous round in Finland.

Both the manufacturers’ and drivers’ titles to be clinched on fast and flowing asphalt roads in Spain.

Elfyn said: “The win on Rally Finland was a great result for us.

“The drivers’ title is still a long shot for us but once more we’ll be giving our best in Spain and trying to get the best possible result there.

“The asphalt roads in Spain are really fantastic to drive, so I’m looking forward to competing on an all-asphalt event this time around.

“So far whenever I’ve driven the Yaris WRC on asphalt, the surface has usually been quite dirty or provided very low grip, so I’m excited to drive the higher-grip roads in Spain in this car.

“That said, at this time of year the weather is never guaranteed to be dry even in Spain.

“If it does rain, as we’ve seen in previous years, it can still be quite a tricky and demanding event.”

Toyota leads the manufacturers’ championship by 61 points, with a maximum of 52 points available after the Spanish event.

For Ogier, a six-point swing in his favour on a rally he has won three times would secure him his eighth world title, while Evans is looking to keep the pressure on.

Kalle Rovanperä is currently fourth in the standings and only one point away from a place in the top three, while TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Takamoto Katsuta will once more be in action in a fourth Yaris WRC.

Based in Salou on the Costa Daurada to the south of Barcelona, the rally returns to the calendar after one year away and moves back to being an exclusively asphalt event for the first time since 2009, having been run as a mixed-surface challenge for the previous 10 editions.

Friday has a loop of three stages repeated either side of mid-day service.

It features a new stage, La Granadella, as well as Vilaplana (a reversal of 2019’s La Mussara Power Stage) and Riba-roja, last seen in this configuration in 2012.

Saturday follows an identical route to before, with a trio of repeated stages followed by a street stage in Salou.

Sunday’s finale consists of the returning Santa Marina stage and the well-known Riudecanyes test, both to be run twice.