DANIEL Barritt and Elfyn Evans showed the determination that will see them go far at last weekend’s Rally Sweden.

Overcoming early issues, the M-Sport pair recovered well to secure sixth place overall on round two of the World Championship.

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The pair displayed a vast increase in speed from this time 12 months ago – proving that they have the pace in their Ford Fiesta RS WRC to challenge for a spot in the the top five on snow.

Indeed were it not for an encounter with the snow banks through the second pass of Röjden (SS8) which cost them almost two minutes to the leading pack, they would have been within sight of a podium position.

“It’s been an event of two halves,” said Welshman Evans who was co-driven by Barrowford’s Barritt. “We made a mistake which cost us a lot of time on Friday and we struggled to find the confidence at times, but generally I think we’ve learnt a lot and we were able to show some pretty good pace towards the end.

“We only do one snow rally a year and this is only my second so it all bodes well for the future. I’m really pleased with the progress we were able to show here and I think we’ve proved our potential on this surface.

“On the whole, I think we did a good job. I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would and we had a great battle with Kris (Meeke).

“We had a good feeling in the car and everything just came together as it should.”

Evans finished ahead of Meeke after a close battle over the final stages and the sixth place finish the pair achieved ensured they climbed into sixth place in the Championship standings ahead of the next round in Mexico early next month.

Team Principal, Malcolm Wilson OBE, added: “It all bodes well for the future and after this result I am sure that they will both head to Mexico with their confidence that little bit higher.”