Elfyn Evans has taken the lead of the World Rally Championship after a second Rally Sweden victory in as many years.
The Toyota driver won the second round of 2026 by 14.3 seconds over Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, with Sami Pajari and Oliver Solberg ensuring a GR Yaris Rally1 lockout of the top four positions.
Evans’ victory, plus 9 bonus points from Super Sunday and the powerstage, earns him a 13-point lead over Solberg, with third-placed Takamoto Katsuta 30 points behind and best-placed Hyundai driver Adrien Fourmaux already 32 points adrift.
“Pretty chuffed and relieved now,” said Evans. “We weren’t sure how the powerstage was going to look; difficult with all the tire management and so much gravel but happy with the time in the end and happy with this result.”
Solberg led the championship into his home event after a sensational Monte Carlo victory, and duly set the pace on Thursday night’s Umeå stage. But a stall at a hairpin on SS2, and then a wild trip off the road into a snowbank that punctured a tire on SS3, left even a podium out of reach for the 24-year-old this time.
Solberg fell all the way to sixth place after an off on Friday and couldn't catch his team-mates
Admitting he underestimated the challenge of running first on the road, Solberg eventually finished over a minute behind his rally-winning team-mate.
“For sure I think I anticipated a little bit better [result] but I underestimated how difficult it would be on Friday,” said Solberg. “I can’t say I did a great job with the plowing on Friday compared to the other days but hey, it’s part of the learning. It’s the first time on the car on snow and opening the road.
“Of course the result is a bit disappointing but after the position I put myself in on Friday I don’t think I deserve anything else than P4 anyway.”
Just like in 2025, Katsuta emerged as Evans’ strongest rival once the Welshman moved to the head of the pack on Friday. Profiting from a better road position in second pass conditions, Katsuta usurped Evans to lead the rally into Saturday.
However he lost 18.9s to his team-mate over Saturday morning, initially bemused by a lack of grip which then transpired to be a tire that had lost a few studs, and was unable to claw back the lost time.
Katsuta fell short of a first WRC win by a smaller deficit than the time he lost on Saturday's morning loop of stages
“Not really happy,” said Katsuta at the finish. “It could have been so much better, especially yesterday, but Elfyn did a fantastic job all weekend. Big congrats to him.
“Personally, I’m really not happy. These things cannot happen at this level,” Katsuta continued, referencing stud loss on a single tire on the Saturday morning loop. “This pure luck about the tires is not sport. They are working on it, I know the Hankook guys are working hard to improve this, so hopefully it’s better next time. I just need to keep improving and push more.
After what he labelled the worst rally of his career in Monte Carlo, Pajari bounced back to claim the second WRC podium of his career in Sweden, 25.6s ahead of team-mate Solberg.
Fourmaux led the charge for Hyundai by finishing fifth, although the returning Esapekka Lappi had been the lead Hyundai driver for most of the event until he dropped behind on the penultimate stage.
Thierry Neuville lost over a minute when he was stuck in a snowbank, and then had to release his seat belts to clear his fogged-up windshield. He was then penalized a further minute and fined €1500 for contesting Saturday’s final stage without his helmet strap fastened. His only consolation was victory on the powerstage, besting Evans by 0.078s.
Thierry Neuville was "lost" in the early phase of Rally Sweden but took a powerstage win as his consolation prize
“Frustration is obviously very high,” said Neuville after finishing seventh, 1m52.7s behind Lappi. “As long as there is still hope, there is still life [sic]. We need to take all courage together and make ourselves strong again.”
That meant M-Sport’s Jon Armstrong finished just 19.6s behind the 2024 world champion in eighth place. The Irishman lost over 40s on the very first stage when he overshot a square right and ingested enough snow to cause his Ford Puma Rally1 to slow.
But he eventually beat team-mate Josh McErlean by 1m.59.9s; McErlean struggled for confidence as well as suffering two rear punctures on the same stage on Friday morning, as M-Sport made an error with its team tire pressure strategy.
Mãrtiņš Sesks was also affected, losing both of his front tires on SS2 before a third puncture forced him to miss the afternoon loop, having run out of spare tires. He finished his first WRC outing of the 2026 season near the bottom of the classification, almost an hour behind Evans.
Roope Korhonen scored his second WRC2 win, fending off a rally-long challenge from Teemu Suninen
Roope Korhonen took 10th overall and victory in the WRC2 class behind the wheel of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, 10.2s ahead of Teemu Suninen on his first event since 2024’s Rally Finland. Škoda pilot Lauri Joona was third, his quest for the podium made easier when Tuukka Kauppinen suffered an engine failure on Sunday’s first stage.
Taylor Gill, last year’s Junior WRC runner-up, bagged fourth place on his WRC2 debut, fending off a late charge from Isak Reiersen’s Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
