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Barritt boost for Evans

Elfyn Evans' hopes of putting his WRC season into top gear are enhanced by the return of co-driver Dan Barritt for YPF Rally Argentina (26 - 29 april).

Barritt missed the asphalt encounter in Corsica earlier this month with concussion after they crashed heavily at the opening gravel encounter in Mexico.

The Englishman passed a medical test on Friday before flying out to South America for the Villa Carlos Paz-based event at which Evans missed a maiden WRC victory by 0.7sec in 2017.

"It's fair to say that I've not had the best start to the season, but we're determined to turn that around next week. With a solid result in Corsica, and Dan back by my side in Argentina, we're looking forward to the challenge and focused on delivering a strong result," said Evans.

They secured their first podium on Argentina's rough gravel tracks in 2015 before last season's heartbreak when Evans clipped a bridge in the final El Condor speed test, allowing Thierry Neuville to win in the third closest finish in WRC history.

"That was a hard defeat to take at the time, but it made us stronger and we'll be hoping to challenge for the top results again this year," Evans added.

The opening four rounds have not been kind to the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team driver. Fifth in Corsica is his best result and he languishes 10th in the championship standings, but a good pre-rally test sends him into this fifth round hoping to replicate last year's pace.

"We completed some development testing in the lead-up to this event where we were able to get a feel for driving on gravel again. We will have a fairly good road position for the opening day and the car feels good - so let's see what we can do.

"You have to take a fairly measured approach to an event like this as there's little margin for error. There's the potential for something to catch you out around practically every corner so you have to have a clean rally and keep mistakes to a minimum," Evans explained.

Zdroj: wrc.com