Ott Tänak leads Rally Sweden by just 0.5 seconds from Takamoto Katsuta heading into Friday evening’s superspecial stage after three lead changes during the afternoon.
Early leader Elfyn Evans is just 1.4s further adrift, while Adrian Fourmaux and Thierry Neuville complete a top five covered by 9.9s.
Evans held the lead going into the afternoon’s stages where a lot more gravel had broken through the ice after the morning loop. He and second-placed Fourmaux both suffered overshoots and dropped more than 14s in total on the long 17.5-mile SS5 as conditions improved for those further back.
It was Evans’s Toyota team-mate Katsuta who set the fastest time on the test, catapulting him from fourth overall into the rally lead, while Tänak also split Evans and Fourmaux.
Tire strategy then came into play on SS6, as Evans was among those to risk using both his fresh spares. He went second fastest, edged by Tänak by 0.3s, to retake the lead. A stall on stage for Katsuta contributed to his 8s loss as he slipped back to second, 1.9s behind Evans but still 1.7s ahead of Tänak.
The Hyundais of Neuville and Tänak set the pace through the shorter SS7 Bäck, Neuville in particular benefiting from fresh rubber to go 0.8s quicker than his team-mate.
Katsuta brielfy led the rally and remains just 0.5s off the pace
But, crucially, Tänak was 2.2s faster than Katsuta and 5s quicker than Evans as he leapfrogged the pair to take the rally lead by just 0.5s from Katsuta.
“I tried hard on this stage,” Tänak admitted. “I’m not sure we got it right with the tire strategy – we used quite a lot on the previous ones. Anyhow, I tried hard and we had some quite fancy moments as well but we are here.”
The “fancy moments” included Tänak approaching a square left with far too much speed. He threw the car sideways and used the snowbank to stop it, before powering away with minimal time loss.
Despite dropping time over the three stages, Evans remains within touching distance of the lead, just 1.4s back. “The rear of the car is very loose now but it’s sort of to be expected,” he said.
Fourmaux had looked set to challenge for the lead himself, after going fastest on two morning stages, but is still only 5.8s behind Evans in fourth. He regretted making a setup change for SS6, where he dropped over 5s to both Tänak and Evans, but returned to form on the next test, going just 1.9s slower than the new leader.
“Now we are back with the feeling I like,” reported Fourmaux. “We’ll see for the last one – I tried also to manage my tires, so let’s see. Still one icy stage to do.”
After struggling with understeer through the morning, lunchtime setup changes helped Neuville find more pace through the afternoon, culminating in his SS7 scratch time.
“I wasn’t pushing that much but I had a good stage,” Neuville reckoned. “Just a few pacenotes a little bit slow, in the dark it’s not always good to see. I just tried to be efficient with the car and the grip, but it’s not easy. It’s really slippery, it’s a lot of ice and the studs are quite worn. But it seems like so far not a bad afternoon, so let’s finish the job today.”
Kalle Rovanperä lies sixth overall, 15.3s behind Neuville. He too managed to find more confidence in the car through the afternoon and reckoned his strategy of saving rubber would pay dividends on the evening’s icy superspecial stage.
The Ford Pumas of Mārtiņš Sesks and Josh McErlean complete the top eight, 41.1 and 57.1s off the lead respectively. Sesks impressed with the third fastest times through SS5 and SS6 to move ahead of his team-mate, who was another to suffer an overshoot on the loop’s opener which cost time. But a smooth run through SS6 gave McErlean the fifth best time to help consolidate his position.
Sami Pajari is 11.3s further back in ninth overall, with two top-four times in the afternoon helping to claw back some of his deficit from a tire leaving its rim in the morning. Grégoire Munster is another 8.6s back in 10th after losing time on the gravelly sections.
Oliver Solberg continues to lead the way in WRC2 despite hitting a number of problems. He was worried first by an exhaust issue, then lost power for much of the loop’s second stage, before describing the car as “undriveable” on SS7.
Solberg’s Toyota still leads Roope Korhonen’s similar car by 20.7s, with Georg Linnamäe completing a Toyota top three, another 23.6s down.
