LAMPETER’S Meirion Evans had to settle for sixth place at the Voyonic Grampian Forest Rally over the weekend after fighting back from an early puncture.

The event was won by his Castrol MEM Rally Team team-mate Chris Ingram and co-driver Alex Kihurani giving the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 its first Probite British Rally Championship victory.

Evans’ plans of getting into an early rhythm were dashed when he hit a big rock that was lying in the middle of the road on SS2, which caused a puncture.

That meant that he ended day one in 11th position and had to reboot and start the process of gaining confidence on the still unfamiliar gravel surface on day two. Against tremendously fast-paced opposition, a rally-best fourth fastest time on the final stage secured a sixth-place finish – just 3.3 seconds behind fifth.

Evans said: “It was a tricky start to the Grampian. We’d planned to get into a nice rhythm on the Friday night and keep building on Saturday, but unfortunately there was a massive rock in the middle of the road halfway through the second stage.

“I managed to miss it with the front, but the back swung around and it clipped the rock and punctured a rear tyre.

“Luckily the tyre went down slowly, but the end of the stage had some fast fifth gear corners and we had to back right off and lost around ten to twelve seconds.

“The opening stage on Saturday wasn’t our best, but from then on the feeling improved and we had a good middle loop which gave us a chance of getting back to fifth, but it didn’t quite happen.

“I made some small mistakes on the last loop which didn’t help but even then my times were okay, especially on the last two stages.

“The pace of the top boys was incredible and if we can set the stage times we did towards the end without a great feeling then I’m confident we’ll get there on gravel in time.

“Now it’s back onto asphalt and a rally that’s close to home which will be nice – and hopefully both Chris and I can fight for a podium finish on both days of Rali Ceredigion and get a good result for the Castrol MEM Rally Team again.”

The next round of the British Rally Championship is the team’s home asphalt event, the double-header JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion (30 August - 01 September).