Evans boosted by Poland gains

Evans found great speed and finished second overall in Mikołajki, but his hopes of a bigger points haul were foiled by a couple of tyre issues aboard his GR Yaris Rally1, the second of which dropped him down the order and out of the points in the event-closing Wolf Power Stage.

At one point in a thrilling seventh WRC round of season, Evans was just a tenth of a second behind his team-mate, rally leader and eventual winner Kalle Rovanperä.

Evans, who sits 15 points off the top of the table, said: “Our speed [in Poland] wasn’t bad: Friday was good with the road position we had and Saturday was also going well until the tyre issue.

“Sunday was all going OK, but unfortunately we had an issue in the Power Stage with a puncture. There was a rock on the line and there was not a lot I could do. We only lost a few seconds, but with this points system a small issue like that can penalise you a lot, so it was disappointing to finish the rally this way.

“It’s definitely the case that the feeling in the car is much better than in the previous rallies. We need to carry that forward, build on what we learned here and look to do a good job in Latvia.”