Elfyn Evans headed into the final day of Rally Sweden with a slender 13.3s lead despite a late push from Takamoto Katsuta, as Toyota’s domination continued.
Evans started Saturday facing a 2.8s deficit to Katsuta, but this was turned on its head after the morning loop. A perplexed Katsuta struggled for grip, which left him 16.1s adrift.
The deficit grew to 18s early in the afternoon as Evans maintained his strong pace, headlined by a fastest time in stage 13. But Katsuta managed to arrest his slide backwards and issued a response as the afternoon progressed. The Japanese driver took time out of Evans across the final two stages to reduce the gap to 13.3s.
“This morning was pretty good but this afternoon was a bit more mixed. Looking after the tyres was a bit more difficult, and not my specialty, but it has still been a clean afternoon,” said Evans, who defeated Katsuta to win Rally Sweden last year.
Katsuta has not given up on an opportunity to beat Evans and snatch a maiden WRC win on Sunday. “One more day to go. Not really happy today and we will find out what went wrong. I will definitely try my best tomorrow,” said Katsuta.
Katsuta also came under pressure from Toyota team-mate Sami Pajari, who set an impressive pace across the afternoon. The Finn, sitting in third, picked up fastest times in stages 12 and 14 to close within 11.4s of Katsuta, before ending the day 12.1s behind his team-mate.
Toyota’s domination of the event was outlined by Oliver Solberg leaping ahead of Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux and Esapekka Lappi to claim fourth in the morning. The Monte Carlo winner’s charge was halted in the afternoon.
Takamoto Katsuta, Aaron Johnston, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: Toyota Racing
“It has been a tricky afternoon that is for sure,” said Solberg, who ended the day in fourth, 33s behind Pajari and 11.2s ahead of Lappi. “Not good. It was so slippery and there was a lot of loose snow and it was difficult to find the rhythm and the confidence. That is it really. It is not where I want to be.”
Hyundai’s crews conducted multiple set-up changes across its trio of i20 N Rally1 cars in a bid to find answers to its lack of pace. To some degree the changes worked as Lappi began to feel more at home behind the wheel to remain in the fight for fourth overall.
Fourmaux tried a radical damper change which wasn’t comfortable for the crew inside the car, but it did deliver some encouraging results. The Frenchman held onto fifth, 8.2s behind Lappi. Thierry Neuville ended the day by winning the final Umea Sprint stage by 1.1s from Katsuta, but the 2024 world champion remained mired in seventh, 2m10s adrift of the lead.
“We had a good day in the car honestly,” said Neuville. “Strong pace for the speed we have at the moment. I enjoyed it a bit more. The conditions were more stable than yesterday, so it made it a bit easier. The car is following the line a bit better. That is all we have at the moment, but at least we had a bit of fun.”
M-Sport Ford’s Jon Armstrong delivered head turning pace in the afternoon stages after making a roll bar tweak to his Puma’s set-up at the midday service. The Irishman was comfortably quicker than his team-mates, ending the day in eighth overall, ahead of Josh McErlean, who was hampered by an intermittent light pod failure that he described as “quite scary”.
Martins Sesks completed the day’s seven stages on his return to action after three punctures on Friday forced him into retirement. The Latvian claimed the fastest time on stage 10, but was hampered by being first on the road in the afternoon. Sesks ended the final stage with a water pressure alarm being triggered on his Puma.
The top 10 was completed by WRC2 leader Roope Korhonen. Three stages await the crews on Sunday to conclude the second round of the season.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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