Welsh ace Elfyn Evans holds narrow lead on first full day of Rally Sweden

He leads his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 team mates Japan's Takamoto Katsuta and his Northern Ireland co-driver Aaron Johnson by just 0.6s.

Fri, 14 Feb, 2025 - 19:15

Martin Walsh

The first full day of Rally Sweden, the second round of the World Rally Championship, developed into a tense battle where the lead changed four times and ended with Welsh ace Elfyn Evans leading his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 team mates Japan's Takamoto Katsuta and his Northern Ireland co-driver Aaron Johnson by just 0.6s.

Estonian Ott Tanak (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) is 1.9s further behind in third. The Irish crew of Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) are in eight position heading into Saturday' penultimate leg.

Evans, who won Thursday evening's Umea super special punched in the quickest time on the morning opener Bygdsiljum 28.27 km stage to extend his advantage over Tanak to 2.7s with Katsuta third.

The star of the morning was French ace Adrien Fourmaux, on only his second outing with the Hyundai team, he was in scintillating form with back-to-back stage wins that catapulted his Hyundai into second - 1.9s behind rally leader Evans, who found it difficult to read the grip.

Tanak struggled with understeer and fell 4.3s behind team mate Fourmaux. Toyota pair Takamoto Katsuta and Kalle Rovanpera followed with the former punching in top three stage times as Rovanperä searched for ways to improve his performance.

Like Tanak, reigning World champion Thierry Neuville also had to contend with understeer.

The Irish crew of Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) lie in eighth place in Rally Sweden, the second round of the World Rally Championship . Picture: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool.

The Irish duo of McErlean/Treacy had a good morning and were best of the M-Sport crews.

Surprised with his time on SS2, McErlean then lost time to his team mates on SS3 but was quicker than both on SS4 to hold seventh on completion of the morning's three stages.

"It is always a battle and a great experience for me because we are running quite low at the moment. We don't have a lot of experience with this surface. " Team mate Martin Sesks was 1.6s behind (eighth) as Gregoire Munster (tenth) struggled with the balance of his Ford Puma Rally1.

Stage winners and rally leaders rotated on the repeat loop of three stages prior to the day's final stage - the Umea Sprint. Katsuta took a stage win and the overall lead on SS4 only for Evans regain event supremacy a stage later before Tanak, quickest through SS6, edged into the overall lead on the penultimate stage - 0.5s ahead of Katsuta with Evans third. McErlean suffered an overshoot on SS5 and had to reverse to get back on stage as team mate Sesks inherited seventh. Evans regained top spot on the Umea Sprint stage.

The Donegal/Monaghan crew of Eamonn Kelly/Conor Mohan are fourth in the Junior WRC category.

Rally Sweden (Round 2. World Rally Championship) Umea

1. E. Evans/S. Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 1h. 08m. 36.5s

2. T. Katsuta/A. Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally)+1.9s

3. O. Tanak/M. Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)+2.5s

4. A. Fourmaux/A. Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)+7/9s

5. T. Neuville/M. Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)+9.1s

6. K. Rovanpera/J. Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)+25.5s

7. M. Sesks/R. Francis (Ford Puma Rally1)+43.6s

8. J. McErlean/E. Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1)+1m. 02.6s

9. S. Pajari/M. Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)+1m. 10.6s

10. G. Munster/L. Louka (Ford Puma Rally1)+1m. 22.5s.