Evgeny Novikov was philosophical after narrowly missing out on a podium finish on Rally Arg🧜entina.

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 Latv🃏ala, 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 𒁏ending Power Stage, and finished more than 30 s꧟econds back in fourth.

"To be hones𝓰t, I think that it was all over after the third stage today [SS13]," exp𝔍lained 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 podium⛦ go and concentrate 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!"