By Gareth James

Elfyn Evans vowed to come back stronger next season after seeing his dream of being crowned FIA World Rally Champion end in heartache.

The 31-year-old had to settle for a career-best second in the drivers’ standings as Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sebastien Ogier won his seventh title.

Evans’ hopes were all but ended when he slid off the icy roads on northern Italy on Saturday when looking on course for that historic championship.

And though he returned to Rallt Monza on Sunday under restart rules to finish third in the power stage it was not enough as Ogier kept his composure to seal victory on the rally.

Evans will be hoping the experience in his first season with the Japanese manufacturer will be the springboard when the new season starts in Monte Carlo next month.

But he had no regrets over his approach to the stages which were to effectively end his hopes when he slid down a snow bank.

Speaking to DirtFish.com, he said: “We always had high hopes of course.

“But at the same time, I also have no regrets either, I think our approach was the right one for the event. It was important to keep on Séb’s tail.

“Actually, the pace and the way I was driving all felt normal. It wasn’t a forced rhythm or taking big risks.

“Of course, like always in those conditions, things can catch you by surprise. It’s just the way it’s gone this time, but I guess we can take confidence from the fact that we have got the speed to fight at the front.”

In a team statement, he added: “It was obviously difficult to get going again after what happened yesterday,” said Evans, who finished just eight points adrift of the Frenchman.

“We were targeting the Power Stage and I think the pace was quite good but unfortunately we managed to stall the car twice in quite extreme conditions.

Evans, who won two rallies and had never finished lower than fourth until the final round of a COVID-19 hit season, added: “We still managed to get some points from there to make sure we were able to secure the position behind Seb in the championship.

https://twitter.com/scottmartinat/status/1335591552266215424

“Congratulations to him and to Julien (Ingrassia)

“To finish the season in second place is obviously not what we wanted, but it’s still not bad and a step forward on my previous seasons.

“I’ve really enjoyed my first year with Toyota Gazoo Racing and I’m sure with the motivation within the team we can continue to improve and be in better positions next year.

“There’s a lot of areas where we feel we can improve,” Evans also told DirtFish.com

“We know that Seb is extremely strong across the board. Whether it’s tricky conditions, whether it’s looking after your tires in dry gravel rallies and all of these types of things.

“He’s very difficult to beat at the end of the day, he’s been a tough team-mate. [He’s a] very worthy champion this year.

“We’re going to have to find some small improvements to take the fight to him and try and beat him next year.”

Evans and co-driver Scott Martin will have little time to ponder what might have been with the new season set to start in Monaco on 21 January.

Team chairman Akio Toyoda said: “Elfyn might be thinking that it was because of his retirement before the end of Saturday.

“But it was he himself who had the toughest moment due to the incident, as the possibility for him to become champion suddenly looked unlikely.

“However, the first thing he said when he was back in the service park was that he was very sorry for the team, that he couldn’t contribute towards the title. It is quite disappointing that we missed it, but I was moved to see his team spirit.