Elfyn Evans reclaimed the Rally Sweden lead on Friday’s final stage to lead Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta by just 0.6 seconds overnight.
The afternoon’s stages had closed the field up so that the top five were covered by just 9.9s heading into the Umeå Sprint superspecial, with Ott Tänak leading by just 0.5s from Katsuta.
But, much to his surprise, Evans was able to translate his first-on-the-road starting position to the fastest time, 3.9s quicker than Tanak and 1.5s faster than Katsuta, to reverse the top three positions.
“I had no grip at all, it’s just so messy in there,” reported Evans. But everyone would struggle for grip on their studded tires that had already worked hard through the afternoon’s second-pass stages.
It meant that the lead had changed for the fourth consecutive stage, and it is all to play for over the remaining two days.
Katsuta, who had briefly led earlier in the afternoon and is seeking his first ever World Rally Championship event victory, is looking forward to the fight. “A long way to go,” he said. “It’s good tomorrow we start quite similar places [in the road order], so more equal conditions so it will be interesting. Today was really comfortable and not any drama, no pushing, feeling very good.”
Tänak dropped from first to third on final stage but remains only 2.5s off the lead
Likewise, Tänak was very comfortable with being just 2.5s off the lead after Friday’s stages. His Hyundai team-mates Adrian Fourmaux and Thierry Neuville complete a top five covered by just 9.1s overnight.
Fourmaux had been the lead Hyundai through the morning before an afternoon setup misstep, but was happy with his performance. “It was a good pace, and to be second on the road today and fourth tonight it’s very positive,” he said.
Neuville had been struggling with understeer through the morning but had a much better afternoon which included a stage win. He was second fastest through the superspecial and is now just 1.2s behind team-mate Fourmaux.
“I think we had very good tire management this afternoon,” he reckoned. “And a clever run through some challenging stages with not a lot of information about the tires, how they would survive. So I followed my feeling and it seemed to be a good strategy for this afternoon.”
Kalle Rovanperä, winner here three years ago, is sixth overnight. Some 16.4s behind Neuville, he remains in strong contention despite struggling to adapt to the WRC’s new tires. “Definitely not the best day for us but sometimes it like this and we need to keep pushing for tomorrow,” he summarized.
The M-Sport Ford Pumas of Mārtiņš Sesks and Josh McErlean lie seventh and eighth, both impressing at various stages. Sesks is 18.1s behind Rovanperä and McErlean a further 19.0s down.
They are being chased down by the Toyota of Sami Pajari, 8.0s behind McErlean, after the Finn dropped around half a minute when a tire came off the rim in the morning.
Grégoire Munster completes the top 10 after an up-and-down day when he initially struggled with his Puma’s balance, then improved its setup, before later suffering from a lack of grip.
In WRC2, Oliver Solberg was fastest on the superspecial, his sixth win it eight stages, despite suffering engine problems on his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
He holds a 23.8s advantage over the similar car of Roope Korhonen, with Georg Linnamäe completing a Toyota top three, another 22.1s down.
