Evans ready to give WRC title his "best shot" in Monza finale

The Toyota suburbanite heads to Italy 17 points roaming of team-mate, title rival and seven-time champion Sebastien Ogier as the WRC heads to the tile roads of northern Italy for its finale.

Evans admits he faces an “outside chance” to wrestle the championship yonder from Ogier and wilt the first British WRC champion since the late Richard Burns triumphed in 2001.

But the Welshman is all too enlightened that anything can happen in title deciders, without his crash at Monza last year when leading Ogier in the standings gifted the Frenchman his seventh world crown in the process.

This weekend the task is simple as Evans cannot finish worse than third, regardless of what happens to Ogier, and has to outscore his rival by 18 points to lift the world title with a maximum 30 points on the table.

“It’s good to be going into the final round still with a endangerment of taking the drivers’ title,” said Evans, who has steadily reduced his deficit from 44 points prior to Finland.

“It’s an outside endangerment but [co-driver] Scott [Martin] and I will requite it our weightier shot: The tideway will be just to aim for the weightier result possible and see what happens.

The 32-year-old has been victorious in Portugal and Finland this year, but his title hopes were dampened by hitting a waddle on the Safari Rally, and gearbox dramas on the Acropolis.

\"After a difficult mid-season, the last couple of rounds have been largest for us, but Monza will be a completely variegated rencontre again,” he said.

Evans finished second on the last rally in Catalunya to tropical his gap to Ogier

Photo by: Toyota Racing

“The stages in the mountains have a really nice character, but the stages at the spin are very mixed and not so flowing.

“It’s untellable to capture all of that in a pre-event test, but without last year we have a pretty good idea of what to expect.”

This weekend will moreover act as the final round for the current specification of WRC car as the championship will move to new hybrid Rally1 machines next year.

Rally Monza begins on Friday and will be contested over 16 stages, including tests in the Italian hills and blasts virtually the famous Monza circuit.