BARROWFORD co-driver Daniel Barritt helped Elfyn Evans to a magnificent fifth place in the latest round of the World Rally Championship in Italy.

The duo secured their second top five finish of a stunning debut season in the seventh round of the championship at the Rally Italia Sardegna.

Evans and Barritt combated the dusty, rocky conditions with varying grip levels to move them up to sixth overall in the standings.

They return to action at the next round in Poland between June 26 and 29, before moving on to Finland.

Evans, who was competing in Sardinia for the first time, said: “There are a lot of positives to take from the weekend.

“We showed good speed at times and we managed to run a clean event with no mistakes and no dramas at all.

“The car was absolutely perfect all weekend, so all in all it was a very productive weekend.

“Our next target will be to maintain the gap to the leaders throughout an entire weekend.

“Poland is going to be another new event for us so we’ll need to approach that with the aim of gaining as much experience as possible.

“Finland too will provide another steep learning curve as we haven’t had chance to complete the full rally in a four-wheel-drive car.

“That said I’m very much looking forward to the upcoming events.

“We’ve made some good progress.”