Elfyn Evans survived a half-spin and stall to hold the overnight lead of Rally Sweden by just 3.0 seconds over his Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, with a four-way fight for victory expected over Sunday’s three stages.
Evans began Saturday’s seven-stage loop just 0.6 seconds ahead of Katsuta, with the top-five covered by a mere 9.1s.
But that five became four as Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux dropped out of contention – first by having to stop on SS11 to fasten his helmet which cost him over 20s, and then by running wide into a snowbank in the afternoon.
Out front, Evans remained the leader even though Katsuta closed to within just 0.1s first thing in the morning. However the Welshman was lucky to get away with a skirmish with a snowbank on SS14.
“It wasn’t like a big hit into the bank, but just low grip and lost the front on the way in,” the Welshman explained. “The speed wasn’t wrong, the angle of the car was wrong. It hurts a bit into the straight, but OK.”
Evans then suffered a half-spin and stalled at a junction on the leg-conlcuding Umeå Sprint stage, and Katsuta was able to halve his rival’s lead – having started the stage 6.0s in arrears.
The Japanese didn’t sound like a driver able to put it all on the line for the win, though.
“I wanna finish, that’s it!” he said. “I will speak with my bosses in the team. Very hungry for many things, but I have been too hungry and done crazy things. Need to be clever this time.”
World champion Thierry Neuville holds third place overnight, just 6.3s off the lead and promising to push “flat out” on Sunday.
His Hyundai team-mate Ott Tänak is not out of the contest either with a 12.8s deficit to Evans, but his afternoon was complicated.
Tänak's had a rough day with a car that's not been working for him
Liquid was escaping Tänak’s i20 in the morning and he wasn’t comfortable in the afterooon either, commenting after the final stage: “You need to ask the engineers, they can enlighten you much more. We’re maximizing what we have.”
Kalle Rovanperä occupies a lonely fifth overall, 10.1s behind Tänak. Still struggling with car setup and adapting his driving style to the Hankook rubber, the Finn felt Saturday was better than Friday but reckoned he is “not even close to optimal”.
Mārtiņš Sesks resisted the pressure from Sami Pajari to hold sixth overall despite a spin – his fight with the Toyota driver “evoking Junior WRC memories”.
Pajari is 12.2s behind Sesks, with M-Sport’s Josh McErlean another 22.2s back in eighth.
The other full-time M-Sport driver, Grégoire Munster, is ninth with WRC2 leader Oliver Solberg rounding out the top-10.
