Taking place over five rounds on asphalt,
gravel and snow, Rally Sweden marks the season opener with Swedish teenager
Johansson one of 19 drivers competing in identical Pirelli-equipped Ford Fiesta
Rally3s registered for 2024.
Starting Saturday’s second leg with a
reduced lead of 26.8s over Romet Jürgenson after the FIA Rally Star driver’s
time on SS4 was adjusted due to an on-stage delay, Johansson’s margin was cut
further to 25.3 sec when Jürgenson set the fastest time on the day-opening SS9.
But Johansson, an 18-year-old Junior ERC
graduate, hit back on SS11 with the quickest run to move 37.5sec ahead of his
Estonian rival, who made a small mistake during the 28.06km stage.
After SS10 winner Diego Domínguez went
fastest again on SS12 for his second Wolf Stage Win point of the day, Johansson
proved the driver to beat in the M-Sport Poland-run championship on SS13 to
move 55.3sec clear of Jürgenson.
While Jürgenson set the SS14 benchmark time,
he will head into Sunday’s final trio of stages with a deficit of 55.0sec to
overcome after Johansson was fastest through SS15, Umeå.
Irishman Eamonn Kelly, who made his Junior
WRC debut in Sweden 12 months ago, holds a comfortable third with Spaniard Raúl
Hernández in fourth despite catching a car and spinning on SS9. Belgian Tom
Rensonnet is fifth after a trouble-free effort from the RACB National
Team-backed driver.
Having dropped a minute with a spin on SS9,
German teenager Fabio Schwarz was in third place when he stopped 13.9km into
SS14 with coolant leaking from his Ford Fiesta Rally3. Although he was able to
continue, the delay dropped him to seventh place before he took sixth when
Roberto Blach retired on SS15 with a damaged steering rod.
Chile’s Gilberto Rosselot, Kazakhstan
driver Petr Borodin, Australia’s Taylor Gill and Romania’s Junior ERC champion
Norbert Maior complete the Junior WRC top 10 followed by South African Max
Smart.
Out of contention for victory due to damage
sustained on Thursday evening’s first stage, Domínguez is in 13th position following
a spin on SS11 and tyre damage on SS11.
Jakub Matulka restarted on leg two after
crashing on Friday. The Polish ERC3 graduate served notice of his intent with a
brace of top-three stage times in the afternoon.
The double-use 25.50km Västervik test kicks-off Rally Sweden’s final leg
from 07:27 local time.