WRC
Evans leads Toyota 1-2-3 as Solberg falters in Sweden
Elfyn Evans moved into the lead of Rally Sweden on Friday morning, heading a Toyota Gazoo Racing 1-2-3 at midday service after a dramatic loop on snow and ice.
The Welshman capitalised when overnight leader Oliver Solberg ran into trouble and built a 14.5sec advantage across the morning’s trio of forest stages, with Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari completing the provisional podium lockout.
The drama began early on SS2 Bygdsiljum, where Solberg - first on the road - stalled briefly after 21km as confidence ebbed on the looser surface. Evans struck immediately, outpacing the Swede by 9.4sec to seize control.
Things unravelled further on the 26km SS3 Andersvattnet. Chasing back time, Solberg ran wide into a snowbank after a snap of oversteer and damaged the left-front tyre on his GR Yaris Rally1, haemorrhaging more than half a minute.
“I went off the road, there was so much snow everywhere,” he said. “I had a big snap from the rear and went off. Lucky I got out.”
The home hero responded on SS4 Bäck, setting fastest time to climb back to fifth overall, but he still trails Evans by 36.3sec heading into the afternoon loop.
Behind Evans, Katsuta maintained steady pressure to sit second, 14.5sec adrift, while Pajari continued his assured start to the weekend in third, 23.3sec back.
For Hyundai Motorsport the morning proved more difficult. Esapekka Lappi is the leading i20 N Rally1 driver in fourth, 34.9sec off the lead, but the Finn was frustrated with his car’s balance.
“It feels horrible,” he admitted. “The grip feels like zero. I feel like we are drifting.”
Adrien Fourmaux sits sixth, just 0.1sec behind Solberg, while Thierry Neuville endured a costly moment when he ran into a snowbank on SS3 and dropped over a minute. The Belgian reached service seventh overall, 1min 37.4sec adrift.
The biggest headache of the morning belonged to M-Sport Ford. All three Puma Rally1 cars suffered tyre issues across the loop, forcing multiple stops and time losses.
Lappi drove his Hyundai to fourth after the opening loop
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Mārtiņš Sesks stopped to change two wheels after a double deflation on SS2 and later encountered further issues. Joshua McErlean nursed two rear punctures through SS3, while Jon Armstrong also battled a rear deflation on SS2.
Team principal Richard Millener admitted the team may have misjudged its approach.
Sesks endured a nightmare morning
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“We did a lot of work on tyre pressures and set-up on the test, but something is obviously different here,” he said. “We may well have made a bit of an error and it has cost us dearly.”
In WRC2, Roope Korhonen led the category and rounded out the top 10 overall after a measured morning.
Crews now tackle a repeat of the morning’s three stages this afternoon before returning to Umeå.
