ELFYN Evans overcame multiple issues in one of the roughest and toughest editions of the legendary Acropolis Rally for many years.

The Dolgellau driver lost significant time during the rally but reached the finish taking points for third in the Super Sunday classification and the Power Stage.

On Friday, his hopes of a top result sadly took a double hit during the morning. Firstly he had to stop and change a wheel and tyre in SS1, before an issue relating to the turbocharger restricted the available power for the remainder of the loop.

While over eight minutes had been lost in total, the team was able to fix the problem during mid-day service so that he could return to competing at normal speed during the afternoon.

After losing around nine minutes on Friday, Elfyn Evans was climbing the leaderboard before a slow-speed roll in a hairpin on SS11. Although he was able to complete the stage, significant damage had been done to the front of the car, leading to the decision to retire from the day.

The 35-year-old: “After a difficult weekend, today didn’t go as well as we would have liked.

“Clearly, the speed is still missing unfortunately.

“In some sections and moments we were still performing OK, but I didn't feel fully at home to really push with no worries.

“I was probably too keen to finish cleanly after what’s been a difficult few days.

“It’s been a big disappointment lately, things have not been going well and we need to get back on the right track.

“We have some work to do and we’ll look to start again fresh in the next event.”

His Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sébastien Ogier looked on course to secure second position and strong points until final-stage heartbreak.

Ogier was fighting back after losing over two minutes at the end of Friday with a technical issue. On the final morning he stormed into second overall and a good lead of the separate Super Sunday classification with wins in the first two stages of the day.

The subsequent Power Stage offered another opportunity to convert that pace into valuable extra points, but early in the rock-strewn test Ogier would sustain a puncture that led him to run wide in a following corner and roll over.

He and co-driver Vincent Landais were thankfully unharmed and, after a delay while they made some repairs, were able to get their car through the stage and to the final time control in Lamia – at least securing the 13 points they had banked for finishing Saturday in third position.

Up next is Rally Chile on September 26-29 in the forests of the Bio Bío region around the city of Concepción on South America’s Pacific coast.