Media duo Tony Jardine and Jonathan McEvoy continued their impressive run on day two of Wales Rally GB, despite some pace notes confusion and a few miraculous saves along the way.

The pairing ended Saturday 65th overall and sixth in class N3, but it was not without its problems for the Sky broadcaster and Daily Mail Formula One correspondent. Midway through Halfway – the day's 18.37km third stage – they momentarily lost their rhythm, which slowed down the progress of their Sportinglife.com-backed Castrol Ford Fiesta.

“Our pace notes on stage nine were muddled and the more we tried to get back in sync with the notes, the worse it got,” Jardine explained. “We lost our way and our confidence for a short while and I had no choice but to back off. This happened twice on the same stage which threatened our position of fifth in class.”

“The notes that we had made for stage nine just didn't seem right,” concurred co-driver McEvoy, who first stepped into a rally car less than three months ago and has really been thrown in at the deep end on his first ever world championship outing. “We couldn't rely on them, and to make matters worse as we were trying to find our way tentatively through the forest it also started raining.”

They happily made it through the 11th stage – Epynt – unscathed, however, taking care not to endanger their chances on Sunday for the last leg of the event. The final stage of the day, held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, was an atmospheric affair, allowing fans the opportunity to see more than 70 of the world's best rally drivers competing in a live indoor arena.

Looking back, Jardine said he was happy with the progress made so far and encouraged by the form of the man sitting alongside him.

“It's going extremely well overall,” he told Crash.net at the end of day two. “We've had our ups and downs, broken a few things, had a few little offs and some miraculous saves, but the team has kept us going and it's been very enjoyable. I've absolutely loved it and hopefully we can just get through to the end of leg three.

“John has done an absolutely superb job in only his fifth-ever rally. He has been very patient, calm and cool under pressure, which is good. It's been very difficult coming from doing what were essentially one-day national events to a three-day world championship event, but I think he has got the hang of it all to be honest.

As to the prospect of rain ahead on day three, Jardine was equally bullish.

“No problem at all,” he stated positively. “The more the merrier – chuck it at us!”