A revamp of the points system for 2025 was welcomed by Evans; it also brought his tightest title race yet.
After second place to Ogier in the Monte Carlo curtain-raiser, the re-energised Welshman won in Sweden and Kenya – rallies the Frenchman sat out.
With a 36-point advantage, Evans had opened up the largest championship lead ever recorded after three rounds of a WRC campaign.
But he would not win again that season and though he never finished lower than sixth, Ogier gradually whittled away at his lead until it came down to just three points with one round to go.
That race was a brand new entry to the calendar, and there was uncertainty over what lay ahead at Rally Saudi Arabia.
The terrain proved brutal for all the drivers. Tyre problems galore saw the leaderboard shifting like the sand. It ended with Ogier in third and Evans in sixth.
The points-swing was seven. The Frenchman had won a record-equalling ninth WRC title by four points, and Evans had fallen just short for the fifth time in six years.
“We’ve done what we can, that’s it,” was his reaction.
“We’re competitors at the end of the day, we always want better, we always want more.”