WRC 2
Rapid Roope leads WRC2 Finnish lockout on Friday in Sweden
Roope Korhonen moved into the WRC2 lead at Rally Sweden on Friday morning’s opening stage and stayed there for the remainder of the day.
The Finnish youngster, who had a WRC2 breakout season in 2025, started Friday morning in fifth overall but already moved into the lead by the completion of the day’s opening stage.
He would then go on to set four quickest times in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 across the remainder of Friday action to complete the day 10.2sec clear of former Rally1 regular Teemu Suninen.
Teemu Suninen is held onto second spot in WRC2 on Friday
© At World
Returning to WRC action for the first time since Rally Finland in 2024, Suninen showed no signs of rust, consistently pushing Korhonen for fastest stage times, clearly at ease in his first WRC2 outing in a GR Yaris, alongside new co-driver Janni Hussi.
Lauri Joona rounded out the podium positions as the best-placed of the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 drivers whilst Tuuka Kauppinen continued the Finnish dominance, completing the day in fourth, one spot ahead of Australia’s Taylor Gill, who turned heads on his WRC2 debut.
Lauri Joona in action at Rally Sweden
© At World
Gill, the 2025 FIA Junior WRC runner-up, beat a number of notable WRC2 regulars into the top five, including 2024 Junior WRC champion Romet Jürgensson who is 1.1sec behind in sixth. Isak Reiersen is the best-placed of the Swedish drivers in seventh.
Another regular, Mikko Heikkilä, lost more than 14 minutes when he went off in his Fabia on the day’s opening test, forcing him to play catch-up for the remainder of the day.
Local hopeful Adam Grahn failed to start on Friday following a major off during Thursday night’s rally0opening Umeå stage, with Germany’s Fabio Schwarz also retiring following an off on the rally-opener. Alejandro Cachón was Friday’s notable retirement, putting his Yaris into a snowbank on SS5.
