DANIEL Barritt and Elfyn Evans endured a difficult outing on the Rally Australia, finishing a lowly ninth overall in their M-Sport Fiesta WRC.

Evans simply could not get to grips with the nature of the Australian roads alongside his East Lancashire co-driver.

The Welshman struggled for confidence all weekend and the pace he was able to extract from the unfamiliar terrain was far from what his talent deserved.

Gradually improving their pace as the event went on, he and Barrowford co-driver Barritt were able to make some inroads, but with little to fight for this is an event they will be keen to forget.

Evans said: “It’s been a really tough rally for us.

“We managed to make some small inroads throughout the weekend, but we still weren’t where we wanted to be.

“It’s important that we go back to the office and work out what was wrong so that we can ensure that we don’t have another rally like this for a very long time.

“Now, my mind is firmly fixed on Corsica where I hope that we can rebuild our confidence and start to show the speed we know we are capable of.”

Team boss Malcolm Wilson was sympathetic to Evans’ plight, saying: “Obviously this is a rally that Elfyn will want to forget, but we need to understand why he wasn’t able to compete at the level we all know he is capable of.

“We’ll analyse all the data when we get back to the UK and I know that he’ll be focusing on Corsica.”

The next rally is in France and starts on October 1 with just two more rounds before the season-ending Wales Rally GB in November.

Evans and Barritt are currently seventh in the standings and have carrot of fellow Brit Kris Meeke one place and eight points ahead as they chase a top six finish for the campaign.