The Welshman was on a charge when he tried to close on teammate and rally leader Kalle Rovanpera when he slipped into a snow bank in the last corner of the 11.17 km long spectator stage.

The snow bank sucked Evans GR Yaris by demanding that the Welshman lower the gas to drive through and over the snow pile and crucially crossed the time beam in the process.

Evans was lucky to reach the goal and lost only 2.6 s to his rival Rovanpera, which left him 8.3 s behind on his way into Sunday’s final stages.

“I mean the snow bank was put there to create the stage, it was really soft,” Evans told Autosport.

“We came in a little warm of course and we were more or less in goal when we met the bank.

“I think we knew when I went through the board that we were ready by that time,” he added, when asked if he was worried he would not finish the finish line.

Evans had closed in within 1.2 seconds of leader Rovanpera earlier in the day after winning the afternoon’s first leg before his younger teammate struck back to win the day’s last two tests.

Ahead of Sunday, he is still confident of taking the battle for victory to his teammate on Sunday.

“We will continue to study and see what can be done obviously Kalle has been really strong this afternoon, but the gap is still not unattainable,” he said.

Rovanpera and Evans started the day behind Hyundai’s overnight leader Thierry Neuville and in front of teammate Esapekka Lappi, as part of an exciting four-way battle for the win, covered by 8.8s.

Rovanpera appeared in the rally management after the first stage of the day before he left his mark on the competition with a brave drive to win the two night stages.

After reflecting on his rise to the lead, the Finn admitted that he has enjoyed the close battle between his rivals.

“It was a nice day and a really nice fight,” Rovanpera told Autosport. “We lost some time at the beginning of the loop but we got it back in the last two stages.

“It’s always nice to be in a tight fight because you need to push yourself more and you can enjoy. I just need to push and try to stay ahead.”

Rally Sweden ends on Sunday with a crew that will take on four more stages.