ELFYN Evans had mixed emotions as he celebrated his Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team debut with an impressive podium finish on Monte Carlo Rally - in a thrilling curtain-raiser for the 2020 FIA World Rally Championship.

Despite lining up alongside six-time World champion Sébastien Ogier at Toyota, and having limited pre-event testing time in his new Yaris WRC, the impressive Welshman twice led, and came agonisingly close to becoming the first ever British winner of the notoriously challenging Alpine classic for more than half a century.

After four days of gripping action on the icy mountain roads above Monaco, Thierry Neuville scored a famous first-ever victory for himself and Hyundai. The fast finishing Belgian won the final six speed tests in his hard-charging i20 Coupe to overhaul both Evans and Ogier on the podium.

Having been consistently among the see-sawing pace-setters throughout and posting four fastest stage times, ultimately Evans and co-driver Scott Martin had to settle for a close third place, just 14.6 seconds adrift of Neuville and less than two seconds adrift of team-mate Ogier. The Frenchman had been gunning for an unprecedented seventh consecutive Monte victory.

Encouragingly for the Welshman and as a fillip for the season ahead, it was his best-ever Monte result and as close as any British driver has come to winning the blue riband event since the famous victories of Paddy Hopkirk and Vic Elford back in the sixties - in 1964 and 1968 respectively. Neither of Britain’s two World Rally Champions, Colin McRae and Richard Burns, ever won the Monte.

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

"Unfortunately, I didn’t quite the feeling that I needed today. I was pushing hard but the speed wasn’t coming so naturally. I wasn’t nailing every corner and that ultimately cost us the handful of seconds we missed out by.

"We still have a little bit of learning to do, but overall it’s not a bad start and we can build on it.”

Neuville’s maiden Monte was the stand-out highlight of a mixed weekend for his Hyundai team. Nine-time champion and seven time Monte winner Sébastien Loeb was never on the pace of the leaders and finally finished sixth more than five minutes adrift.New signing Ott Tänak crashed out spectacularly on the second morning. The defending world champion survived the high speed accident unscathed but, with his i20 damaged well beyond repair, failed to score any points.

There were mixed fortunes, too, for the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team. Esapekka Lappi enjoyed an increasingly competitive debut finally finishing fourth, albeit more than three minutes off victory.

After early troubles, team-mate Teemu Suninen fought back to eighth but Gus Greensmith was not so lucky aboard the third of the Fiesta WRCs. The young British driver’s rally came to an untimely end following a slow speed spin on ice into a roadside ditch.

After such a rousing start to what promises to be another fiercely-fought series, this year’s World Rally Championship switches to the frozen forests of Sweden (13-16 February) before the rival teams travel further afield to the gravel roads of Mexico and Argentina.