From second on the road, Evans takes positives from Sweden performance

The Welshman suffered in the snowy conditions at the front of the field on the first full day of action on the World Rally Championship’s winter round, but bounced back to finish second overall and take the most points away from the Umeå-based event.

“It’s been a very up-and-down weekend,” said Evans. “It wasn’t looking so good on Friday when we had a difficult job with our road position. But we managed to get through it which I think was important, and that gave us the opportunity to climb back up the leaderboard.”

Talking of the positives, Evans added: “When conditions were suiting us, our pace was quite OK and we managed to get some good points in the end. I think we probably should have won the [Wolf] Power Stage, but made a couple of mistakes at the end. Still, from where we were earlier in the weekend and to come out of it with a good haul of points, I think we can be reasonably happy.”

Evans’ round two result leaves him just three points behind top of the table driver Thierry Neuville heading from Sweden’s deep freeze to the baking plains of Africa.