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Podium relieves pressure on Evans

Elfyn Evans said his first podium of 2018 at Vodafone Rally de Portugal has removed some of the pressure on him after a lacklustre start to the season.

The M-Sport Ford driver finished second on the gravel event and claimed a brace of stage wins as he recovered from a disappointing YPF Rally Argentina to finish 40.0sec behind winner Thierry Neuville.

Despite the turnaround in pace, he admitted he wasn't sure where the speed had come from. He told WRC.com: "To be perfectly honest there's not a huge amount that we changed, just some small tweaks to the car.

"I think there were some areas that we were perhaps not so strong on driving-wise in Argentina and we managed to pull it together here, so hopefully we carry on like this."

Evans is hoping the result will be a platform for him to build on for upcoming rallies but conceded there is still room for improvement in his driving after ‘managing' his pace to avoid any incidents.

"I'm not entirely happy with my driving everywhere but it is a big step forward and it is always a little bit of a balance when you start to feel there's a result on the cards. You always manage it a bit more on the basis that we've had such a crap start to the year that we really needed to have a result," Evans added.

As well as being a positive for him, M-Sport Ford secured a double podium - with Teemu Suninen finishing third - which allowed the team to close on leaders Hyundai in the manufacturers' standings despite Sébastien Ogier's retirement on Friday.

He said: "It's a great shame for Seb, otherwise I think all three cars would have been quite high up. But it's nice for myself and Teemu to start contributing to the manufacturer points tally after not being so helpful at the start of the year!"

Zdroj: wrc.com