Elfyn Evans resisted the pressure from his Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta to win Rally Sweden by just 3.8 seconds after an incredible final morning.
Evans started the final day 3.0s ahead of Katsuta, but lost the lead on the day’s opening stage where Katsuta topped the times to move ahead by 4.5s. Evans then immediately responded on the second pass of the same 18-mile Västervik test, going a full 8.2s faster than his rival to surge back ahead.
The powerstage was a longer version of the Umeå test that had been run as a superspecial on each of the three previous evenings. On the notoriously tricky surface, where a late mistake cost him powerstage victory last year, Evans topped the times by just 0.1s, to clinch the victory and maximum points on Super Sunday too, for a full house over the weekend.
He now holds a 28-point lead over Sébastien Ogier in the drivers’ standings, with Kalle Rovanperä a further two points back.
“I made life difficult for myself on that first stage this morning,” smiled Evans. “But at least it focused the mind and got a good run over the last couple of stages there now, and obviously very happy with the end result.”
Katsuta, who was also second on the powerstage and Super Sunday overall, fell agonizingly short, having snatched the lead on the morning’s first stage. He could still be proud of a very assured performance over the weekend.
“Many people sending me message last night, giving me some extra energy to stay on the road!” laughed Katsuta. “We did quite well actually. Unfortunately I was not ready to fight for the victory on this. Elfyn did an amazing stage on the last [penultimate] one, that’s a proper stage time: hats off, Elfyn, well done.
Toyota secured its third consecutive one-two finish
“Next time when I have a chance, I try to push next time, but this time I wanted to stay on the road and bring her back.”
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville completed the podium, 8.1s further back, despite struggling with the car’s balance through much of the event. He held off team-mate Ott Tänak’s push on the final day, who’s car was back to full health, by 4.9s, and was also third on the powerstage.
“We have done a good rally,” summarized Neuville. “Some ups and downs but overall I think we can be pleased with our performance. We saw that road positions were changing throughout the whole weekend. It’s very hard to know what would have been the best start position. Anyhow, well done to Elfyn and to Taka, they have done an amazing event. We kept fighting and I think we can be proud of the result.”
Tänak was more despondent after completing the powerstage. “This stage was like the rest of the rally – quite complete disaster,” he said. “First corner I already went in the bank. Super-frustrating yesterday, just losing it all. It’s such a shame. It’s just when you come with the high hopes and you get a rally like this, it’s very difficult to swallow.”
Just over 30 seconds covered a top five completed by Kalle Rovanperä after an incredibly close event that had featured six lead changes in its 18 stages.
“Big disappointment,” admitted Rovanperä, who has struggled to get the best from the new Hankook tires on both events so far this year. “But we need to go to the next one and hope that on gravel we have a better pace with this year’s stuff.”
A strong drive through Sunday’s stages meant that Mārtiņš Sesks comfortably held off his former Junior WRC rival Sami Pajari for sixth overall, by 17.6s. Both were happy with their performances over the weekend, although Pajari continued to rue the time lost to a tire coming off the rim on Friday.
Sesks was quicker than Pajari through Sunday's stages to clinch sixth position
The second M-Sport Ford Puma of Grégoire Munster was eighth, more than a minute further back, after a steady run hampered by his road position. Team-mate Josh McErlean had earlier lost more than 45 minutes in a snowbank on the day’s first stage, but managed to complete the full mileage.
“Today was a bit frustrating, but in all I think we have to be happy with the weekend,” said McErlean. “It’s been a big step forward since Monte Carlo.”
The Super Sunday standings mirrored the overall top five, except for Neuville and Tänak switching positions.
WRC2 winner, and ninth overall in the rally, was Oliver Solberg. Securing the class win for a third consecutive year, Solberg was in dominant form, taking his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 to victory by 42.5s. The similar car of Roope Korhonen was second, holding off Mikko Heikkilä’s Škoda by 25.8s.
