M-Sport WRC team says it won't drop Elfyn Evans this year

Evans ended the New South Wales event ninth and some way off the pace of his team-mate Ott Tanak.

The 26-year-old struggled to pinpoint the reason for his lack of feeling on the roads around Coffs Harbour and headed back to the team's Cumbria base looking for answers.

The service park down under was rife with speculation that Wilson could bench Evans during the final three rounds of what will be a tense fight for second place in the manufacturers' championship.

M-Sport is currently fourth in the standings, 29 points behind the second-placed Hyundai.

"I've told him not to listen to any of this bullshit going about that he's going to be dropped," Wilson said of Evans.

"He's not. I can guarantee that he will be in the car for the last three rallies of the season, but we've got to see some changes.

"It's a good job we've had Ott here, so we've been able to see what the car is capable of."

Evans remains two points ahead of Tanak in the drivers' championship, in seventh place.

He has, though, been outscored by the Estonian driver 49 points to 22 in the six rallies since taking his maiden WRC podium in Argentina in April.

"I don't know what the problem was, I just couldn't get comfortable with the car at all," Evans said.

"I was lost with it. It's been a very, very tough event.

"We were lucky to get away with the moment in the dark stage, very lucky - that was close.

"But now we'll go home and try to understand what happened here, so we don't have another event like this again."