Takamoto Katsuta dropped 18.9 seconds to Elfyn Evans on Saturday morning at Rally Sweden, watching his overnight lead switch to a 16.1s deficit.
Oliver Solberg led his home event after Thursday evening, but Evans took the lead first thing on Friday and held it for most of the day.
But in the afternoon, in second pass conditions, Katsuta beat his team-mate on every single stage to assume the lead by 2.8s ahead of Saturday.
A big battle had been expected, but Evans has simply driven away from Katsuta who has been left totally bemused by his lack of pace.
The Japanese lost 7.2s, and the lead, on SS9 Vännäs, and was then the slowest Rally1 car except Toyota customer Lorenzo Bertelli on SS10 Sarsjöliden.
“No idea, just no grip,” said Katsuta. “[I’m] driving same as yesterday, maybe some stages I push more a bit but it’s so strange. I have no idea what is happening.”
Katsuta’s time loss, coupled to an SS9 stage win, allowed Evans to lead by 10.3s, and that grew to 16.1s after the final stage of the loop as Katsuta gave up another 5.8s to Evans.
“I don’t feel comfortable in the car, there is no grip,” he repeated. “I don’t know – I just need to find out what was wrong and how to improve this afternoon.”
Evans defeated Katsuta to Sweden victory in 2025. He's on course to do the same this year
Evans, who was either fastest or second fastest across the morning’s trio of stages, added: “I’m feeling pretty OK, let’s say. It’s been an OK morning, middle stage not easy but the rest of it was fine.
Oliver Solberg has made the most advances on the leaderboard this morning though, climbing ahead of both Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi and Adrien Fourmaux – now setting his sights on Sami Pajari’s third place.
“It’s a long shot, but I’ve got to try,” said the championship leader.
Pajari admitted that “wasn’t a surprise”, but still has a 24s advantage over his team-mate. Solberg gained 4.8s over the morning’s three tests.
Lappi remains the leading Hyundai driver, extending his advantage over team-mate Fourmaux to 9.3s. Thierry Neuville remains seventh ahead of M-Sport duo Jon Armstrong and Josh McErlean.
Mãrtiņš Sesks restarted the rally on Saturday morning and showed strong pace, recording his, and M-Sport’s, first stage win of 2026 on SS10 Sarsjöliden.
