Elfyn Evans says he felt immediately comfortable aboard a Toyota Yaris when he tested it for the first time in the French Alps.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing machine was the first World Rally Car Evans has driven other than the Ford Fiestas in which he has competed for the past five years.

The Welshman said the Finnish-based team, with whom he has signed a two-year deal, couldn’t have made him more welcome.

“Everything was positive,” said Evans, following his first pre-Rallye Monte-Carlo Rally. “The mood’s good in the team and everybody was really helpful. I’ve no doubt there will be some adaptation – I was with M-Sport for a long time – but I was made to feel very much at home.

“The car felt good and I was able to get comfortable with it quite early on. The feedback from the car was good, I could feel what was going on underneath me in fairly mixed conditions.

“We had a dry day and then from lunchtime on the second day more and more frost started arriving with every run. It was a bit strange, normally you expect the frost to come when it starts to get a bit darker. But it was a good chance to drive the car in those conditions.”

Evans is scheduled to be back behind the wheel for some running in Finland this week before the team heads south to the Alps early in the new year for a final warm-up and pre-event Monte-Carlo test.

Evans refused to make any firm predictions on his debut event with Toyota.

“I’m not thinking about the chances of winning this rally or that one,” he said. “There are no target events specifically and it’s the same with the championship. My approach for Monte is to go there and make the best of the opportunity – that’s the approach for the rest of the year.”

VIDEO

More News