Ott Tänak has won the opening stage of Rally Sweden 2022, putting a Hyundai i20 N Rally1 into the overall lead of a round of the World Rally Championship for the first time.
Kalle Rovanperä – despite running as first car on the road – is an early second overall but just 1.9 seconds splits the top five after the first run through Kroksjö.
Rovanperä had a skirmish with a snowbank on one of the very first corners of the rally, losing a tiny section of his rear bumper as a result, but he was more concerned about how much time he was going to lose with his road position.
“I tried my best, it was much more difficult than I thought,” he said. “Especially the small roads they’re really, really tricky to drive.
“I thought it would be much cleaner but now the lines from the recce are under the snow so we had to clean it.”
But the Toyota driver may be pleasantly surprised by the pace of his rivals behind him as the next car, M-Sport’s Craig Breen, was seven seconds slower and Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville was 1.4s back.
“There was so much more snow than what I anticipated from the recce so honestly trying not to make any mistakes, keep it in the middle of the road,” Breen explained.
“There’s so much time in there but you can get stuck in the snowbanks so easily.”
Neuville was equally sure the road was “getting faster” but admitted he was “quite happy with this stage”.
“I’m still not so confident on the entry of the corners so need to work on that but other than that the car is fine,” he said.
Rovanperä’s benchmark stood until seventh on the road Tänak arrived at the end of SS1. The 2019 World Rally champion – the only champion in the field with Sébastien Ogier absent for the first time in a decade – stopped the clocks 0.4s faster than Rovanperä to take the lead of the rally.
“This one was a big shock, the road is broken and a lot of snow so it was hard work,” Tänak commented.
Only Tänak managed to topple Rovanperä but his Hyundai team-mate Oliver Solberg – the last Rally1 car on the road – was just one second down on the event leader.
“I didn’t do a good stage I had a lot of problems with the shifting,” said Solberg, competing on his home event in a top-line car for the first time.
“I thought I lost a lot of time but I pushed really hard in other places. It’s going to be a flat-out run.”
Neuville made it a Hyundai 1-2-4, 1.8s down on Tänak and 0.1s ahead of Toyota’s returnee Esapekka Lappi.
“Tricky, really tricky!” Lappi said. “The road is just digging so much that you have no idea do you have the grip and it feels that from the recce that the lines are completely on the wrong places. The entry of the corner is almost always one meter too late – it’s challenging!”
Good time from @ElfynEvans through the opening stage of the rally but will this rear left damage caused him any issues through the ultra fast SS2? pic.twitter.com/JxiCD1XuY4
— DirtFish (@DirtFishRally) February 25, 2022
Elfyn Evans started sixth on the road and finds himself a slightly muted sixth overall after the first stage, but still firmly in the hunt with just a 3.9s deficit.
His Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 was missing a significant chunk of his rear-left bodywork as he reached the end of the stage but that was of minor concern.
“Very difficult with the lines, they’re a bit everywhere, snow’s very thick so it’s a bit messy in there,” he said.
Breen’s Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid is seventh, 1.3s up on Takamoto Katsuta while his two team-mates Gus Greensmith and Adrien Fourmaux are fighting to even be in the top 10.
Greensmith locked up and overshot a square-right junction but still beat Fourmaux by 1.9s. The M-Sport duo trail the leader by 21.2s and 23.1s respectively in 10th and 12th places.
“I just got in the braking and couldn’t get the car stopped but it was trying to stall so I was trying to keep my foot on the clutch to stop it stalling,” Greensmith rued.
“Stupid mistake but generally it was tricky, not how I’d like.”
Fourmaux’s pace was sedate but that was the plan as he looks to rebuild his confidence after a massive crash on last month’s Monte Carlo Rally.
“Honestly I want to get the confidence, it was a clean stage for me so we just need to improve but it’s OK,” he said.
Outpacing Greensmith by one tenth of a second was team-mate Jari Huttunen, driving one of M-Sport’s Ford Fiesta Rally2 cars in the WRC2 classification, while Fourmaux was also beaten by the Volkswagen Polo GTI R5-driving Ole Christian Veiby.
SS1 times
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) 8m34.1s
2 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +0.4s
3 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Hyundai) +1.0s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +1.8s
5 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota) +1.9s
6 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +3.7s
7 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (M-Sport Ford) +7.4s
8 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota) +8.7s
9 Jari Huttunen/Mikko Lukka (M-Sport Ford) +21.1s
10 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +21.2s
