The opening act is now complete, and the follow-up has a lot to live up to in terms of drama, suspense and storylines.
But we are heading to Rally Sweden this week, so an entertaining rally is all-but guaranteed.
This is all the key information you need ahead of Rally Sweden 2025:
Entry list
Total 61 crews
11 Rally1
26 Rally2 (20 WRC2)
23 Rally3 (12 Junior WRC)
Rally1
A healthy 11 Rally1 cars will take the start in Umeå as three drivers make their first start of the season.
Toyota had planned to run five cars for the second round running, but Lorenzo Bertelli has had to withdraw due to work commiments.
Elfyn Evans will lead the charge as first car on the road, ahead of works team-mates Kalle Rovanperä and Takamoto Katsuta – who’s registered for manufacturer points for the first time in 2025. Sami Pajari joins the trio in an additional GR Yaris Rally1 entered by Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2.
M-Sport Ford doubles its presence from the Monte with four Pumas in Sweden. Full-timers Grégoire Munster and Josh McErlean are responsible for manufacturers’ points, while Mārtiņš Sesks joins the fold for the first of potentially seven rounds this year. Jourdan Serderidis drives a fourth car.
Hyundai’s lineup is unchanged from round one. Thierry Neuville, Ott Tänak and Adrien Fourmaux will steer i20s, but the car has been upgraded so there’s still plenty of intrigue here.
WRC2
Oliver Solberg is the obvious favorite for victory in WRC2 this week, given he’s won his home round in both 2023 and 2024.
But after his performance at the recent Arctic Rally in Finland, could it be another Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 pilot that ultimately prevails?
18-year-old Tuukka Kauppinen will have plenty of eyes watching him, but steps up a level to WRC2 and will run different studs to what he used in Lapland. Expect him to be a factor regardless though.
The entry is a wash of Toyotas and Škoda Fabia RSs – Georg Linnamäe and Roope Korhonen in the former camp, while Mikko Heikkilä, Lauri Joona, the returning Pontus Tidemand and Isak Reiersen are among those in Fabias.
Reigning Junior WRC champion Romet Jürgenson is an outlier in his Ford Fiesta Rally2, but will be worth watching as he makes the step up to the Rally2 category.
Junior WRC
Jürgenson’s old rivals start their first event of five in Sweden, and things look incredibly close to call among the leading contenders.
Taylor Gill, Diego Domínguez, Ali Türkkan, Mille Johansson, Eamonn Kelly and Max Smart all look like potential title winners, while there’s lots of new blood to look out for including Joosep Ralf Nõgene, Thomas Martens and Tristian Charpentier.
Beyond Rally finalists Lyssia Baudet and Claire Schönborn are also in action, with just one of them able to see out the season beyond Sweden.
WRC3 has also attracted a strong entry, headlined by Mattéo Chatillon, Matteo Fontana and Ville Vatanen (no relation to Ari).
Itinerary
This year’s Rally Sweden features some significant changes to what’s gone before – beginning immediately with Thursday’s Umeå City shakedown stage which, as the name suggests, unusually takes place on the riverside of the rally’s host city.
The rally begins that evening with the Umeå Sprint test before an almost entirely new loop of tests on Friday: Bygdsiljum (which moves from Saturday), Andersvattnet and Bäck. Another pass of Umeå Sprint concludes the day after the second pass of forest stages.
Saturday’s to the west of Umeå is largely unchanged, with the Vännäs and Sarjöliden stages carried over from 2024 and joined by Kolksele – another brand-new stage.
Umeå (a longer version of the Umeå Sprint test that features the Red Barn Arena) concludes Saturday, and runs again on Sunday as the powerstage.
Sunday’s leg is exactly the same as last year, with two passes of Västervik (the rally’s longest stage) preceding that powerstage.
