ELFYN Evans, from Dolgellau, was the best-placed British driver as reigning champion Sebastien Ogier won the opening round of the FIA World Rally Championship in Monte Carlo.

The 28-year old Welsh driver won three out of the 17 stages in the M-Sport Ford Fiesta in his first event since returning to the WRC, as he and co-driver Daniel Barritt finished in an impressive sixth overall.

Evans was more than six minutes behind team-mate Ogier, whilst Toyota’s Jari-Matti Latvala finished in second place, with M-Sport’s Ott Tanak in third.

“It’s a fantastic start to the season for us. We didn’t have a great day on Friday, but Saturday’s performance more than made up for that, and really raised some eyebrows,” said DMACK driver Evans.

“I was very happy with my driving and the feeling with the car and tyres was really positive. It was easy to work with Daniel again, everything gelled together.”

Evans’ performance was DMACK’s top result on Monte, and proof that its new asphalt and winter tyres have made massive leaps forward in terms of their performance.

The traditional season-opener lived up to its reputation, with competitors facing a range of fearsome winter conditions across the stages in the French Alps.

After enduring a difficult day on Friday, when he struggled to get to grips with the hard-packed, icy roads, the Welsh ace turned it around on Saturday’s five stages to the south-west of host town Gap.

He scored DMACK’s first fastest time on stage 10, then stormed through stage 12 to finish 7.4 seconds ahead of his nearest rival - team-mate, four-time World Champion and eventual rally winner Ogier.

On stage 13, a flat-out blast on clean, dry asphalt roads, Evans also blitzed the rest of the pack again to dominate the day.

It was a real British success story. The winning combination of Evans, Barritt, DMACK’s British-built tyres and M-Sport’s Cumbrian-made Ford Fiesta WRC was the star of a super, snowy Saturday.

The event saw DMACK start its seventh consecutive season as authorised tyre supplier to the WRC, and once again the challenging conditions ensured tyre strategy played a critical role in the result.

Dick Cormack, DMACK managing director, said: “We have to be pleased with the result on what has been some of the toughest Monte conditions for a few years.

“Elfyn has driven exceptionally well and huge congratulations are in order.”Overall Classification:1. Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) 4:00:03.6; 2. Jari-Matti Latvala / Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +2:15.0; 3. Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja (Ford Fiesta WRC) +2:57.8; 4. Dani Sordo / Marc Marti (Hyundai 120 Coupe WRC) +3:35.8; 5. Craig Breen / Scott Martin (Citroen DS3 WRC) +3:47.8; 6. Elfyn Evans / Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) +6:45.0; 7. Andreas Mikkelsen / Anders Jaeger (Škoda Fabia R5) +9:32.7; 8. Jan Kopecky / Pavel Dresler (Škoda Fabia R5) +12:58.1; 9. Stéphane Lefebvre / Gabin Moreau (Citroen C3 WRC) +14:43.8; 10. Bryan Bouffier / Denis Giraudet (Ford Fiesta R5) +16:09.4.