Elfyn Evans has become the first driver to protect their lead of Rally Sweden 2022 after the fifth special stage, but Ott Tänak set a blistering pace despite a late hybrid issue.
Current leader Evans, Tänak, Esapekka Lappi and Kalle Rovanperä have all taken turns in the lead of the rally in what has been a thrilling scrap for supremacy so far that also includes Oliver Solberg and Thierry Neuville.
Evans hit the front on the previous test and remains in charge overall, but his performance on SS5 was “quite careful in places” and he could tell it wasn’t “perfect”.
His run was good enough for the third-fastest time, but it could’ve cost him the lead had Tänak not lost hybrid power in the last third of the stage.
“It was actually a big disappointment because last 10km we lost hybrid, we just touched the ground and it went,” Tänak rued.
“It’s definitely not meant for rallying this box we are carrying.”
Frustration aside, Tänak did vault up from fifth to second place and trails the leader Evans by just 1.1s.
Esapekka Lappi had “a very clean stage” to remain in third place, another 1.1s adrift of Tänak. But Oliver Solberg went backwards, losing 8.5s to his stage-winning team-mate to fall to fourth; six seconds shy of the lead.
“I drove very bad, way too careful and took too much care of my tires at the beginning,” Solberg said.
Road-sweeper Rovanperä lost yet more time – and positions – on the second stage of Friday afternoon. The road cleaning effect was far more profound on the second pass of the stages due to historic cars creating different lines on the stages.
“It’s really difficult, one of the most difficult conditions where I’ve been driving,” Rovanperä declared. “I just try to survive and let’s see what we can do.”
The Toyota driver lost 7.9s to stage winner Tänak and dropped behind both the Hyundais of the 2019 world champion and Thierry Neuville; slipping from fourth to sixth.
Overall though Rovanperä is still just 8.9s adrift of the lead, two seconds behind fourth-placed Neuville.
Gus Greensmith had an eventful stage, chucking his Ford Puma Rally1 quite aggressively into some corners before overcooking one left-hander and plowing into a snowbank.
The M-Sport driver was well off the road but somehow he managed to avoid getting swallowed by the massive pile of snow and emerged back on the road.
But having driven through so much snow, his performance was affected thereafter as he had to watch his engine temperatures.
“Pfft, yeah, since service we had to change the gearbox and struggling and then I just sent it into a bank,” Greensmith said.
“It clogged up at the front [with snow] and we just got no power.”
The mistake cost Greensmith two positions as he slipped from seventh to ninth behind Takamoto Katsuta and team-mate Adrien Fourmaux.
SS5 times
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) 12m31.0s
2 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota) +1.8s
3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +4.1s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +4.8s
5 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +7.9s
6 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Hyundai) +8.5s
7 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (M-Sport Ford) +11.9s
8. Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota) +13.3s
9. Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Eriksen (Škoda) +40.4s
10. Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +40.5s
Leading positions after SS5
1 Evans/Martin (Toyota) 50m29.6s
2 Tänak/Järveoja (Hyundai) +1.1s
3 Lappi/Ferm (Toyota) +2.2s
4 Solberg/Edmondson (Hyundai) +6.0s
5 Neuville/Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +6.9s
6 Rovanperä/Halttunen (Toyota) +8.9s
7 Katsuta/Johnston (Toyota) +1m09.7s
8 Fourmaux/Coria (M-Sport Ford) +1m18.3s
9 Greensmith/Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +1m36.4s
10 Ole Christian Veiby/Stig Rune Skjaermoen (Volkswagen) +2m18.5s
