It was certainly a compelling edition of Rally Sweden. There were six lead changes, a victory margin of 3.8 seconds, and the top four covered by less than 17 seconds. But amid the spectacular lead battle, there were plenty more insights to be gained, up and down the leaderboard.
Here’s what we learned from Rally Sweden 2025:
Evans a real championship favorite
Where has this Elfyn Evans been the last couple of years? Relaxed, self-assured and prepared to go on the attack, he’s never had a better start to the season than this.
Could 2025 finally be the year he grabs the world title?
Two rounds down and 12 to run, it’s way too early to say. But what’s clear is he’s a big favorite for success if this run of form continues. Already, his championship lead is a massive 28 points after a maximum 35-pointer in Sweden. Nobody’s looking capable of being as consistently quick as him right now.
Having been outscored by Evans on both rounds so far, the rest will need to step it up in Kenya. Otherwise they risk Evans disappearing off into the distance.
Katsuta’s discipline is back
Takamoto Katsuta’s response to his benching from Rally Chile at last year’s CER was extraordinary. But the two events that followed were a little more complicated.
Katsuta was back to his very, very best in Sweden. Rapid from the get-go, and effortlessly so, he settled into a rhythm in the big fight at the front.
But the big question was: could he sustain it? Just 12 months ago we’d seen the same pace from Katsuta in Sweden, only for him to go off into a snowbank.
However there would be no blip this year, barely even a moment. Of course Katsuta was disappointed to miss out on victory after such a close fight with his team-mate Evans, but the fact he was in the equation from start to finish was deeply encouraging.
From Toyota’s perspective, what really matters is he did that while making no mistakes.
Fourmaux still has one key weakness
Building on a terrific Monte Carlo Rally, Adrien Fourmaux was again brilliant on the first full day of Rally Sweden – embedded in the five-way fight to win and living with his two world champion team-mates.
But the strange events of Saturday showed that the Frenchman still has a key weakness.
The incident where Fourmaux realized with just seconds to go that his helmet strap wasn’t fastened was deeply unfortunate. By all accounts he did the right thing by starting the stage (as blocking the start is a big no-no) and then stopping very quickly on the stage to tighten it.
But clearly he was frustrated by the whole affair. He elected to say nothing at stage-end, ignoring the interviewer’s question, and then told us in the media zone afterwards that no marshals had checked if he was geared up correctly, ready to start the stage, like normal. He hoped he’d get some time back because it was a safety issue.
Dumped from the fight at the front, Fourmaux was a man on a mission in the afternoon as he immediately won the first stage out of service. But just three corners onto the next stage, he’d relied on a snowbank just a little too much and his Hyundai was swallowed into retirement.
Was he letting his emotions drive him? Potentially. “Hard to say now, but yeah, probably I wanted to do well and try to catch a bit,” was Fourmaux’s response. “We did a really good first stage, so I wanted to keep the same pace, for sure.”
As he also said the pace is clearly there, he just needs to make sure he always translates that into results and doesn’t let his emotions override him.
Rovanperä’s struggles continue
Kalle Rovanperä’s joke at the end of the Monte Carlo Rally powerstage may not now be so funny. Of course he can still drive a rally car fast, but not as easily as he used to at the moment.
That’s what Rally Sweden confirmed to us.
This is perhaps the first time we’ve ever seen a genuine weakness from the WRC wonderkid. Still his struggles to adapt his driving style to the new-for-2025 Hankook tires continued and, allied to incorrect car setup, Rovanperä lost too much time to begin with and couldn’t feature in the fight at the sharp end thereafter.
Plenty of work is needed between now and Kenya to make sure Rovanperä doesn’t face the same problem on gravel – the season’s majority surface.
New Hyundai hasn’t proved itself (yet)
The cat is finally out of the bag as far as Hyundai’s updated i20 N Rally1 is concerned. The long-awaited upgrades made their debut in Sweden – and finally we got some insight from the team on what they’d changed.
But did the upgrades work?
Cyril Abiteboul was quick to point out the upgrades weren’t implemented with Sweden specifically in mind, but Gerard Jan de Jongh equally said the team felt they’d be a benefit everywhere.
So some mixed messaging. But the drivers’ feedback sounded eerily similar to struggles they’ve had in the past, relating to understeering and car balance.
Clearly events like Estonia, Finland and Chile will be the real test. On the evidence of Sweden, it didn’t appear as if much had changed other than the suspension struts no longer angled.
There’s pace within McErlean
In some respects, Josh McErlean’s Rally Sweden was a total reverse of his Monte Carlo Rally.
On round one the Irishman’s pace wasn’t anything special, but he kept his nose clean when so many others didn’t and picked up a fine seventh place.
Last weekend, the pace was genuinely impressive – firmly in the pack and quicker than two world champions Neuville and Rovanperä on one stage!
But the mistake did come – burying his Ford Puma Rally1 deep into a snowbank. Sterling work from McErlean and co-driver Eoin Treavy however kept them in the rally and they were able to again complete all the competitive mileage.
That’s the main takeaway, and that already the pace looks strong in certain conditions. That’s encouraging considering his instructions for the first three events has simply been to get through them.
Sesks hype not misplaced
If Poland and Latvia were straight from the highlights reel, was Chile the reality check? Rally Sweden – the first of a six-round program this year – was always going to provide a truer read of Mārtiņš Sesks’ capabilities.
And the hype doesn’t look misplaced.
Of course he didn’t set the world alight like he did last summer, but that was never the plan, nor a realistic expectation. Instead he got the better of a flying Finn tipped to be a future world champion in Sami Pajari, on roads that you’d have thought favored the Toyota.
Pajari was dumped down the order as early as stage two when he hit a snowbank and knocked the tire off the rim, but Sesks was able to keep him behind.
A fighting sixth place was the end result, and acts as the perfect start for Sesks to keep proving why he is worthy of full-time presence in the WRC.
