World Rally Championship: Elfyn Evans has 'outside chance' of title win

Elfyn Evans admits he has only an "outside chance" of beating Sebastien Ogier to the World Rally Championship title at Monza in November.

Welshman Evans retained his hopes of becoming world champion by finishing second at Rally de Espana, closing the gap on Frenchman Ogier to 17 points.

A maximum of 30 points are available in Monza, but Ogier only needs to finish third to win an eighth title.

"We have to be as positive as we can and we'll give it our all," said Evans.

"We know how unpredictable sport can be, especially rallying. Anything can happen - a mistake from Seb, an issue with a car or a puncture."

Evans was well-placed in the championship table after the first five rounds of the season, before going four races without a podium finish.

But things have improved lately as he finished second in Spain after victory at Rally Finland to ensure his challenge to title-holder Ogier goes to the final event.

"We're happy to be in with some sort of chance. It wasn't a very good mid-season for us, we had a string of pretty bad results," said Evans.

"The past couple of events have been a lot more positive, we've managed to cut to the gap to Sebastien quite significantly which we needed to do.

"We'll have to win in Monza, and we need him to help us out by not being so good."

The championship will now be decided in Italy, from 19-21 November, just as it was in 2020 when Evans' hopes were ended after a crash on stage 11, leaving Ogier to secure the title.

"The shoe is on the other foot this year. We go into the final round with a similar gap to what was between us last year, but I was ahead going into the event.

"Unfortunately we had some pretty unpredictable weather and a heavy snowfall, and I got caught out by a sudden change in grip, and a change in surface underneath the snow.

"That effectively ended our chances of becoming champions."