Evge꧙ny Novikov was philosophical after narrowly missing out on a podium fi൩nish on Rally Argentina.

𝄹Novikov went into the final day of the fifth round in the 2013 FIA World Rally Championship just 8.5 seconds up on Jari-Matti Latvala, but despite a valiant effort, the young Russian unfortunately had to forfeit his third place on the penultimate test.

He then suffered a spin in the event ending Power Sta♕ge, and finished more than 30 seconds back in fourth.

"To be hon🦩est, I think that it was all over after the third stage today [SS1♔3]," explained the Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team man.

"We were pushing hard, but Jari-Matti took a lot of time out of us and we understood then that we should let the pod🔥ium go and conceꦬntrate on getting to the end of the event.

"I actually backed off in the Power Stage [SS14] and maybe because of that I lost a bit of concentration and had a spin in the stage - not because we were pushing; because I slowed down too much. But it was never our plan to fight on that stage so it wasn't too much of a drama.

"Of ﷽course it would have been nice to have come away with a podium, but fourth place is still a very good result for us on this rally. I think it was the best we could do today. I want to thank Jari-Matti for the fight - I really enjoyed it and I'm sure everybody else did too!"