By Gareth James

Elfyn Evans was left to rue a ‘clumsy’ error as he was forced to retire from the Safari Rally inflicting a blow to his World Championship hopes.

The Dolgellau-born ace struck a rock on stage three forcing his Toyota Yaris WRC to grind to a halt just a kilometre from the end.

Evans – who was lying fourth at the time – saw his attempt to repair the car with co-driver Scott Martin end in failure.

The 32-year-old could yet return on Saturday under Rally 2 regulations in an attempt to pick up points on Sunday’s Power Stage to cut the damage to his title hopes.

Evans is currently second in the standings to team-mate Sebastien Ogier.

“Massive disappointment really, bit of a clumsy error in a way,” said Evans.

https://twitter.com/TGR_WRC/status/1408319162506690560

“The stone was sticking out a bit further than what I’d anticipated and what I had marked on the notes so a bit of a mistake there really and obviously a big shame this early on in the event.

“I’m kicking myself for that.

“It’s always a massive disappointment to retire on something that could’ve been avoided.

“If you’d come a bit fast or you run a bit wide maybe then you expect that a little bit but this one feels a little bit painful to be honest.

“On an event like this, you have to try and fix something if you can, but once I could inspect the damage I knew there was no chance to continue today.

“Now we have to look forward to the rest of the weekend and try and salvage something from it.”