Elfyn Evans finished fourth on Rally Mexico, as round three of the FIA World Rally Championship wrapped up a day early, as fears about closing borders and the ability to get home safely grew. Out on the stages, it was another excellent performance by the Dolgellau driver, especially as all of Friday had been spent running first on the road – a very real disadvantage on a loose gravel event. A few little issues on Saturday saw Evans slip away from the battle for a podium position – and the result means that he’s lost the lead of the WRC to his Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sébastien Ogier, who scored a record-equalling sixth Rally Mexico triumph, and his first in a Yaris WRC.

It’s a shame Elfyn Evans isn’t in a commanding Rally Mexico lead, as we’d have gone with the ‘cactus if you can’ headline – but, as expected, running first on the road on day one proved to be a big disadvantage. Yet the FIA World Rally Championship leader did exceptionally well to lose as little time as possible dealing with the worst of the loose gravel road conditions to keep himself very much in contention with two days of competition remaining. Having been in second position after a pair of opening short street stages in Guanajuato on Thursday night, Evans dropped to seventh after the first loop of stages yesterday morning. But when road conditions were better for him in the afternoon, the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team driver was able to climb back up to third by the end of the day. Co-driven by Scott Martin, Evans ended the first full day of action 33.2 seconds behind team-mate Sébastien Ogier, 20 seconds behind second place Teemu Suninen (Ford) and 0.2 seconds ahead of fourth placed Ott Tänak (Hyundai). Game on!

This is the first time that Elfyn Evans will start a round of the FIA World Rally Championship leading the drivers’ standings, and with it comes the handicap of having to run first on the road, at least to start with. It will certainly be a disadvantage at this weekend’s Rally Mexico, as he’ll sweep the loose gravel clear and leave the road cleaner for his rivals running behind – although the Dolgellau ace vows to just ‘focus on the job in hand’ as he aims to continue his great start to the season. Evans has a pretty good record in Mexico, with a couple of fourth place finishes and a career best third last year. And this year has started well too, with fastest time on today’s Shakedown stage. However, the event can throw a curve ball too, as he found out in 2018 when he suffered a nasty sixth gear roll.

Elfyn Evans shares the lead of the FIA World Rally Championship tonight, after becoming the first British driver to win Rally Sweden. Before today, only six nationalities had won the traditional winter round of the series, with 64 victories out of 70 events going to either Swedish or Finnish drivers. Colin McRae came close by finishing second in 1992, but in a brilliant performance Evans led this year’s event from start to finish to leave Sweden tied at the top of the drivers’ standings with Thierry Neuville.

Elfyn Evans is on the brink of joining an elite club of non-Scandinavian drivers to have won Rally Sweden, as he takes a 17.2 second lead into tomorrow shortened final day of the event. The Toyota driver, who has led the event from the start, set three more fastest stage times today to double his lead over reigning world champion Ott Tänak (Hyundai). Only a very short day tomorrow stands between Evans and his second win in the FIA World Rally Championship.

With such a shortened route, every driver had to be super-fast out of the blocks today if they were to stand any chance of winning Rally Sweden – and fastest of all was Elfyn Evans, who leads the event for the first time in his career tonight. Evans set a blistering time on the opening stage, completing it 1.1 seconds quicker than Ott Tänak (Hyundai) and 2.9 seconds fastest than his Toyota team-mate and six time world champion Sébastien Ogier. And Evans never lost that lead all day, setting another fastest time on stage three and two second quickest times on stages two and four to lead Tänak (the reigning world champion and last year’s Rally Sweden winner) by 8.5 seconds.

Elfyn Evans faces one of the most difficult challenges the FIA World Rally Championship can throw at him this weekend – a shortened Rally Sweden without snow! You’d think that would make the event easier, but far from it. With high snow banks to bounce off and thick ice for the studded tyres to grip into, Sweden is one of the fastest and most spectacular rounds of the series.

He may not have won the Monte Carlo Rally, but Elfyn Evans has most certainly proved that he is a serious contender for this year’s FIA World Rally Championship title by finishing third on the series opener. Making his first appearance for the Toyota Gazoo Racing team, the Dolgellau ace started today’s final leg with a 4.9 second lead over team-mate Sébastien Ogier. The fact that Evans was beating the six time world champion, who had won the last six Monte Carlo rallies, in the same car, on the Frenchman’s home turf, was sensational. But both were overtaken by Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), who took the final day by storm and shot from third to first after the first loop of two stages, and extended that to a 12.6 second winning margin.

Dare we dream of Elfyn Evans winning the Monte Carlo Rally? He’s got a great chance, as he leads the opening round of the 2020 FIA World Rally Championship with just tomorrow’s final leg remaining. But he’s in a very close three-way battle for victory, and goes to bed tonight just 4.9 seconds ahead of his Toyota team-mate and six time world champion Sébastien Ogier, while Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) is a mere 1.5 seconds further behind in third. Such has been the pace of the top three, that the fourth-placed driver – none other than nine time world champion Sébastien Loeb (Hyundai) – is over two minutes further adrift.

Elfyn Evans starts today’s leg of the Monte Carlo Rally in second position, having led for most of yesterday after a fantastic performance in his Toyota Yaris. The longest day of the event consisted of two loops of three stages and featured a range of weather conditions, including ice, snow, rain and mud as well as sections of dry asphalt. Starting the day fourth overall following Thursday night’s opening tests, Evans was fastest on all three of the morning’s stages as he moved into the lead of the rally.

The 2020 FIA World Rally Championship gets underway on Thursday at the famous Monte Carlo Rally – and it’s where Elfyn Evans will make his competition debut for the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team. In a sport where loyalty between personnel and teams still remains reassuringly common, it’s been an unusually busy winter in the normally quiet rally driver transfer market. Evans (who has never before rallied in the WRC with anyone except the M-Sport Ford team), Sébastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä have all moved to Toyota, world champion Ott Tänak was made an offer he couldn’t refuse by reigning manufacturer champions Hyundai (who keep Thierry Neuville, Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo), Esapekka Lappi is the new star at M-Sport Ford and Citroën missed out on all the big name signings, threw a hissy fit and pulled the plug on its WRC programme. Whilst Ogier, winner of the last six Monte Carlo rallies, will start the first round as favourite to bag early maximum points, the intriguing new driver/car combinations means that there will be a ferociously close fight for the world title this year. Evans could most certainly be in the thick of that battle, as an exciting new era for the Dolgellau star begins.

Elfyn Evans has made his first official public appearance as a Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team driver after attending the squad’s pre-season launch at the Tokyo Auto Salon in Japan. After a long career with Ford, dating back to 2007 when he first competing in a Fiesta ST, the 31-year old Dolgellau ace made a big career-decision at the end of last year to leave M-Sport – which is as much a second family as it is a motorsports team for Evans – to join arch rival Toyota. Together with co-driver Scott Martin, Evans will once again be a team-mate to six time World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier (as he was at Ford a few years ago) and also to one of the hottest young drivers in the series, 19-year old Kalle Rovanperä.