DOLGELLAU driver Elfyn Evans saw his FIA World Rally Championship lead cut back at Rally Italia Sardegna but took some positives from the weekend of racing.

Evans and co-driver Scott Martin had the tough task of opening the road on Friday but a patient approach paid off with fourth overall, despite losing around two minutes stopping to change a tyre on Saturday afternoon.

Evans also came fourth on Super Sunday and fifth in the Power Stage and continues to the lead the drivers’ championship, 19 points in front of Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate and rally winner Sébastien Ogier and 20 ahead of Kalle Rovanperä who finished third. TGR-WRT increased its manufacturers’ championship lead to 69 points.

Evans said: “Overall we have to be satisfied with how our weekend has turned out.

“Fourth was realistically as much as we could expect starting first on the road on Friday.

“This is always a rally full of attrition and getting to the end without big issues was vital.

“The pace of the top three was pretty hot but the positive thing is that we did make clear progress through the rally in terms of feeling, especially in second-pass conditions, so that gives us some positives to take forward to Greece.”

This year’s edition of the Italian island event lived up to its reputation, with ambient temperatures exceeding 30 degrees centigrade combining with rough and rocky roads to test the drivers, their cars and their tyres to the limit.

TGR-WRT faced a challenge to continue its winning run with three of its drivers having to sweep the sandy stages for their rivals to follow on Friday, but Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais performed strongly to seize a narrow lead in the day’s last stage.

On Saturday, the fight for the win became another duel between Ogier and his rival and friend Ott Tänak (Hyundai), just as it had been on the previous round in Portugal and in last year’s Sardinian event.

Ogier carried a lead of 11.1 seconds into a demanding final day, which featured a pair of new stages to each be run twice, and continued to increase his advantage through the morning after winning the opening stage.

There was still a scare in the deep ruts of the rally-ending Power Stage when Ogier had a half spin towards a tree and had to reverse, but he hung on to seal the win by 7.9s.

With his fifth win on the event, Ogier becomes its most successful driver since the FIA World Rally Championship started visiting Sardinia in 2004.

It is his third win from four starts so far this season while TGR-WRT maintains its 100 percent winning record in 2025.

As in Portugal, Kalle Rovanperä completed a double podium finish in third.

Running second on the road on Friday, he and co-driver Jonne Halttunen nonetheless showed good speed and avoided trouble, and saved their strongest performance for the Power Stage where they were fastest by 8.1s – also allowing them to top the Super Sunday classification.

Up next is the Acropolis Rally in Greece which completes a trio of demanding gravel events in southern Europe with an earlier date this year of 26-29 June.

A legendary event in the WRC, it has a reputation for rocky mountain roads and high temperatures.