DANIEL Barritt and Elfyn Evans have their sights firmly fixed on Rally Finland after retiring from last weekend’s Rally Poland.

The pair were forced to make an early exit from the Saturday stages when the water pump - a tried and tested part -failed without warning.

Although Evans and Barritt were allowed to restart on the Sunday under Rally 2 rules, they were effectively out of the running It was a bitter blow for Evans and his Barrowford-based co-driver, who had displayed a vast increase in pace from this time 12 months ago.

The lack of a pre-event test did not standing in the way of showcasing their potential and the Welshman outshone a number of his more experienced rivals through Friday’s opening leg.

With the past three events not going to plan, Evans and Barritt are more determined than ever to produce a turn of fortune at Rally Finland, which starts on July 30.

To that effect, the team opted to retire his Ecoboost-powered Fiesta WRC at the final service to best prepare for what is known as the ‘Gravel Grand Prix.’ “It’s been three bad events in a row for us now, so hopefully that’s the end of it and we can look forward to making a comeback in Finland,” said Evans.

“Our team-mate Ott Tänak finished on the podium and that has really proven what the new car can do this weekend and that provides all of us with a huge amount of confidence moving forward.

“I think we had the potential to be relatively quick here. I don’t know if I would have been on the same pace as Ott as he was simply incredible, but when everything was working well I felt really good in the car and I think we could have been where we wanted to be.

“Unfortunately we didn’t get the mileage to prove that so we’ll just have to try and prove it in Finland.”