The five titles that got away as Evans seeks WRC glory

Few leading sports stars have been so tantalisingly close to crowning glory for so long without achieving ultimate success as rally driver Elfyn Evans.

The 37-year-old from Dolgellau in north-west Wales has been runner-up in the World Rally Championship (WRC) five times in the past six years.

With this year's WRC calendar truncated by the removal of the planned Saudi Arabia finale, Evans takes a 17-point lead into the now season-ending Rally Italia Sardegna from 1-4 October.

If Evans can maintain his advantage over team-mates Sami Pajari and Oliver Solberg it will be a crowning moment for the Welshman, who would become only the third Briton to win the WRC title - joining Colin McRae and Richard Burns.

As he prepares to grasp history in Sardinia, BBC Sport looks back at the five times Evans fell just short of his dream.

Evans does have a world title - winning the WRC Junior Championship in 2012 which earned him a full-time seat in M-Sport's Ford Fiesta.

However, it was a move to Toyota Gazoo Racing in 2020 that put his senior career into overdrive.

Only huge last-event misfortune cost him instant success in a season cut from 13 races to seven by the Covid-19 pandemic.

本文の著作権はBBCにあります。