Takamoto Katsuta’s target is to win Rally Sweden, and he leads the event into Saturday ahead of Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans.
While it was Oliver Solberg who led his home round of the world championship after Thursday’s sole stage, the Swede quickly dropped back with a stall and a wild trip into a snowbank that cost him over half a minute in the morning.
That left Evans to take charge of the event, carrying a 14.5s advantage into the afternoon over Katsuta.
But Katsuta confidently stated this would be his loop, as his start position of fifth vs second for Evans would prove preferential in second pass conditions.
And so it proved, as the Japanese began eating into Evans’ lead. Slashing the advantage down to 5.6s on SS5, Katsuta halved that again on SS6 before jumping into a lead (albeit by just 0.1s) after SS7.
Katsuta then beat Evans for the fourth stage in succession to lead Rally Sweden overnight by 2.8s.
“All good,” said a composed Katsuta. Quite tricky afternoon with worn tires but I think we did quite a good job to save them and finding the right spot to push. Still two days to go and it’s going to be a big day tomorrow.”
Sami Pajari is a lonely third but completing a Toyota lockout of the top-three as it stands, 22.2s shy of his rally-leading team-mate. He declared himself happy “ish”, conflicted over his pace vs position.
“It’s of course nice to be in a good position, but I was hoping to have even better speed,” Pajari said. “It’s a long way to go – it’s a really different challenge tomorrow with a different road order so we just need to do the best we can and hopefully we can keep the position and maybe even better.”
Esapekka Lappi leads the line for Hyundai on his first WRC event since Chile in 2024, struggling for grip aboard his i20 on his first taste of the ‘Evo’-spec car and Hankook’s tires.
“We stayed out of trouble, so we need to be pleased with that. Pace-wise, probably I should be super satisfied after such a long break, but I’m not,” the Finn said. “I want to be better.”
Team-mate Adrien Fourmaux is 4.4s behind but just 0.7s ahead of Solberg, who admitted he underestimated the challenge of running first on the road.
“I completely underestimated how difficult it would be to be first on the road,” he said. “I’ve never done it before, so I have to say it’s very, very tricky. This afternoon has been a nightmare difficult – they’re prepped all the stages beautifully except today. But a good day of learning, I’m still very fresh.”
Solberg is 51s off the lead.
Neuville's not got the feeling - but did win a stage
A dejected Thierry Neuville is seventh, admitting this is “the toughest time of my career” as he failed to find the feeling he craved in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1. But he did at least record his first stage win of the season on the penultimate stage of the day.
Josh McErlean ended a frustrating Friday ninth and three and a half minutes off the lead. Two rear punctures on the same stage in the morning as M-Sport made its tire pressure mistake held him back, and he then struggled to replicate his speed from last year thereafter.
He then completed the last stage with the radiator accidentally blanking still in place.
“Bit frustrating, but it could have happened on a worse stage,” McErlean said. “I make plenty of mistakes too, so it’s OK.”
Jon Armstrong is 51.5s up the road in eighth, describing a fastest split time on SS7 as “half a tick” as he endured a puncture later on the same test.
The third M-Sport of Mãrtiņš Sesks suffered three punctures in two stages in the morning, but never restarted in the afternoon.
Roope Korhonen leads WRC2 by 10.2s over Teemu Suninen.
