MID Wales rally stars Elfyn Evans and Tom Cave both ended on the podium at last weekends's Neste Rally Finland, the ninth round of the World Rally Championship (WRC).

Dolgellau star Evans was behind the wheel of an M-Sport Fiesta and took second place behind Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi while Cave of Aberdovey, driving a Hyundai i20 R5, ended 15th overall and third place in the WRC2 Rally.

Aberangell’s Osian Pryce, alongside Llanfyllin co-driver Dale Furniss, was also in WRC2 action and ended 18th overall.

A dramatic rally saw early leader Jari-Matti Latvala retire with rookie driver Lappi to take over and lead home the field by over a minute from Evans who saw off home favourite Juho Hanninen to snatch second.

It completed a famous fightback for Evans having battled back from seventh place following the opening 13 stages.

Evans said: “We’re really chuffed to come away with second place. We kept at it, kept pushing and managed to claw our way back up the leader board. 

“We started without a test and were really struggling with the balance of the car throughout that opening day but we made some changes which helped quite a lot and the longer stages and drier conditions helped too.

“It’s not the win, but it’s still a strong weekend and we can be pleased with the job we have done.”

Cave was also delighted with his podium, the first for the Hyundai i120 R5.

Cave said: “My motto is teamwork makes the dream work and that phrase has never been more appropriate. I would like to thank all the people and organisations involved for giving us the opportunity to compete in Finland and achieve this result.”