DOLGELLAU driver Elfyn Evans is looking to make further improvements as the FIA World Rally Championship heads to Greece.

Evans and co-driver Scott Martin finished fourth in Sardina last time out after the tough task of opening the road on the Friday. A patient approach saw them just miss out on a podium place, despite losing around two minutes stopping to change a tyre the following day.

That saw his FIA World Rally Championship lead cut back to 19 points with Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sébastien Ogier chasing hard as the championship head to Greece for the legendary Acropolis Rally.

Evans said: “The Acropolis is another of the tougher gravel rallies on the calendar with a hard and rocky base and a lot of loose rocks.

“We’re going there at a different time of year to usual, so it has the potential to be very hot and demanding for the cars and the tyres.

“We also know we will face the familiar challenges opening the road on the Friday, when there are a lot of stages run only once.

“Our performance was stronger in Sardinia and we’re hoping we’ve made some further improvements in testing and can be more competitive again in Greece.”

The team will be aiming to defend its unbeaten run through another hot and rough gravel challenge on 26-29 June.

After achieving back-to-back gravel wins in Portugal and Sardinia with Sébastien Ogier at the wheel, the GR YARIS Rally1 now faces another tough test in Greece.

The Acropolis runs earlier in the year this season, having been held in September since it returned to the FIA World Rally Championship in 2021, and the new date in the middle of summer brings the possibility of harsher conditions for cars, tyres and drivers.

As well as leading the manufacturers’ championship by 69 points, TGR-WRT continues to occupy the top three places in the drivers’ standings; Elfyn Evans leads Ogier by 19 points and Kalle Rovanperä by 20.

Alongside this trio nominated to compete for manufacturers’ points, Takamoto Katsuta once more drives a fourth silver GR YARIS Rally1 while Sami Pajari pilots a fifth car under the TGR-WRT2 banner.

Ogier said: “Sardinia was a very positive weekend for us and I was back in the car two days later to test for Greece and to try and confirm the good progress we made with the setup.

“The challenges in Greece are not so different, with high temperatures and a rough and rocky surface, and hopefully we can be strong once more in these conditions.”

This year the rally returns to the Greek capital Athens for a start ceremony and opening super special in the heart of the city on Thursday evening.

Friday’s action begins to the west with three stages on familiar roads around Loutraki, which then hosts a remote service before three further tests are tackled on the route back north to the service park in Lamia.

This includes the Stiri stage, last driven in 1997.

Saturday is the rally’s longest day, made up of a loop of three stages south of Lamia to be run twice, either side of mid-day service.

Two stages north-west of Lamia will run twice either side of service on Sunday; the brand-new Smokovo and well-known Tarzan, the second pass of which serves as the rally-ending Power Stage.