Super Sunday on Rally Sweden was just that! After 300km of hard racing, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin won the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship by 3.8 seconds from Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston in another Toyota Gazoo Racing one-two.

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe brought their Hyundai i20 N home on the final step of the podium, fending off the attentions of the 2019 World Campion Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja by 4.9 seconds.

The final day featured two runs over the longest stage of the rally and the Wolf Power Stage; the first 29.35km run over Västervik saw Katsuta set the fastest time, beating Evans by a relatively massive 7.5 seconds – and re-taking the overall rally lead with a margin of 4.5 seconds and two stages remaining.

Evans dug deep in the penultimate stage, setting the fastest time, crucially 8.2 seconds faster than his Japanese teammate and with a 3.7 second cushion heading into the 8km Power Stage, it was going down to the wire!

Katsuta set the benchmark time in the Power Stage but Evans was 0.1 seconds faster, clinching 35 points for a perfect weekend score.

Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen brought their GR Yaris home in fifth, ahead of the leading M-Sport Ford Puma of Martins Sesks and Renars Francis, winning the ‘battle of the youngsters’ by beating Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen by 22.2 seconds.

The third youngster, Ireland’s Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy, buried their Puma deep in a snow bank 14.9km into the day’s first stage. They rejoined thanks to a group of spectators who helped dig their car out, but fell way down the order.

Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson made it a hat-trick of WRC2 victories on Rally Sweden after leading throughout the four day event. Roope Korhonen/Anssi Viinikka took second with Mikko Heikkila/Kristian Temonen rounding out the podium.

Read Motorsport Monday tomorrow for a full Rally Sweden report

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Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin lost the lead of Rally Sweden twice, once to Takamoto Katsuta and once to Ott Tänak, but by the time the crews rolled into the stop control on the final Friday stage, the Toyota Gazoo Racing crew held a 0.6 second lead over Katsuta who won stage five and took the overall lead.

Evans struck back one stage later before succumbing to Tanak’s flying Hyundai i20 N on stage seven, dropping to third overall.

The final stage may have only been 5.1km long but it was enough for Evans to end the day clinging on to the lead from his on-form Japanese teammate.

The Welshman started the day in fine form, with the temperatures recording -12°C, bagging the opening stage scratch time before Hyundai’s coming man Adrien Fourmaux took two stage wins on the trot to keep Evans very much on his toes and under pressure.

Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak both complained of understeer, as did Kalle Rovanperä and Grégoire Munster in the lead M-Sport Ford Puma. All four bled time throughout the morning.

At the midday service, Evans led Fourmaux by 1.9 seconds with Tänak 4.3 seconds behind and 2.2 seconds ahead of Katsuta, the top four blanketed by 8.4 seconds. The leading Ford Puma belonged to rookie Rally1 driver Josh McErlean and Eoin Tracey, something of an indictment on Munster’s performance.

After service and some tweaking Katsuta, Tänak, Neuville and Evans each took a stage win and by the end of the day’s action, the top five were covered by 9.1 seconds!

Sami Pajari was flying on the day’s opening stage but gave a Valentine’s kiss to a snow bank, pulling a tyre off the rim which cost 40 seconds as the Yaris limped through the stage.

The other youngster in the field, Latvian Martins Sesks built up his speed over the day, recording the third fastest time on stage five as well as stage six as he builds his confidence of rallying on snow and ice and ended the day the fastest of the M-Sport quartet.

In Rally2, Oliver Solberg has a 20.7 second lead over Roope Korhonen having won five of the day’s seven stages. Georg Linnamäe lies third, some 45 seconds off the pace in spite of winning stage six.

Positions after SS8:

1. Evans, Katsuta +1.9, Tänak +3.6, Fourmaux +9.3, Neuville +14.3

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In spite of running first on the road, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin took the 5.16km Umeå Sprint stage win by half a second from their Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen.

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja led the Hyundai charge, tying with Rovanperä, with Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria 0.7 seconds back in fourth place.

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe set the fifth fastest time, 3.7 seconds off Evans’ time, followed by Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston and Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen.

M-Sport Ford’s rookie, Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy in only their second Rally1 start, lead the four-car strong Puma attack with the eighth fastest time, three seconds quicker than Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka while Martins Sesks/Renars Francis rounded out the top ten.

In WRC2, Oliver Solberg – chasing a hat trick of Rally2 wins – and co-driver Elliot Edmondson beat fellow Swedes Pontus Tidemand/Jorgen Eriksen by 1.4 seconds to lay down an early marker.

Earlier in the day, Neuville topped the shakedown stage times, from Sesks, Tänak, Fourmaux and Evans.

There’s a long way to go…

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Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm ended their 6½ year victory drought in fine style in Sweden, taking a comfortable half a minute victory and Hyundai’s second win on the trot at the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship.

Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin made short work of taking second place away from Adrien Fourmaux/Alex Coria in the first stage on Sunday, demoting M-Sport Ford’s pairing to third, which was inconsequential to the Frenchmen who stayed calm to claim their first ever WRC podium.

While all three manufacturers were represented on the podium, it was Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe in fourth, who goes away with the lead in the WRC standings while the Manufacturers’ Championship is a tie between Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT and Toyota Gazoo Racing.

Evans lost the Wolf Power Stage top spot by 0.039 seconds after clipping a snowbank in the third last corner of the stage, handing the extra point to his teammate Kalle Rovanperä.

The Super Sunday points allocation which awards points to the top seven fastest drivers across the final day’s stages saw Evans bank the seven bonus points

Two of the favourites for victory, Kalle Rovanperä and Ott Tänak both crashed out in the same stage on Friday, leaving Takamoto Katsuta briefly in the lead.

Katsuta, gunning for victory against Lappi on Saturday, crashed out in stage 10.

Home hero Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson took a comfortable win in WRC2 powering their Toksport-run Skoda Fabia to a 1 min 19.7 second victory over Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen in their Toyota Yaris Rally2.

Such was the dominance displayed by young Solberg that he held third in the overall standings on Friday night and finished fifth overall after a perfect weekend.

The WRC2 podium fight between Pajari and Estonian Georg Linnamäe and Brit co-driver James Morgan in their Yaris Rally2 went down to the wire.

The Finns only had 4.8 seconds in hand before the final 10km stage and were ragged through their run, dropping 2.3 seconds to their rivals to take second position by 2.5 seconds.

Read Motorsport Monday tomorrow for the full rally report

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Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm brought their Hyundai i20 N home after Rally Sweden’s seven Saturday stages with a comfortable 66 second lead over second-placed Adrien Fourmaux/Alex Coria’s M-Sport Ford Puma who held off Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin’s Toyota Gazoo Racing Yaris in a tense battle for the podium places.

The anticipated fight between Lappi and Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta fizzled out when the Japanese star buried his Yaris deep in a snowbank 3.4km into the tenth stage chasing down the 0.9 second gap to the Finn.

A dejected Katsuta said: “We did an okay time on the first one to gain the time and a much closer gap between me and EP [Lappi]. I wanted to continue pushing, maybe even more to gain more time but obviously I was trying very hard, and [in] one corner I carried a bit too much speed and snapped the rear and hit the snowbank. We were stuck and couldn’t get out.”

With a lead of 1:31.6, Lappi immediately backed off, ending the next five stages in fifth, third, fourth, sixth and fourth, giving away 25 seconds to the French Ford driver, who put in the drive of the day.

“Sure it is harder {now mentally}, said the Finn after stage 11. “I was over safe but I don’t know what else I should do. The time is what it is. We are not touching the banks.”

Fourmaux set the fastest time in stage 11 as he fought off the attack from Evans with the gap hovering between 13 and 16 seconds throughout the day.

Fourmaux was extremely lucky to survive a heart-stopping moment in the final stage when he almost buried his Puma in a snowbank right next to his teammate Grégoire Munster, who’d locked up and went into the snow nose first, losing 15 minutes as the crew dug their stranded car out.

“I’ve seen the video [of Munster] and I thought it was the corner before,” Fourmaux said. “When I realised they were there it was too late. What a good day, a rollercoaster, up and down, but I’m happy, P2.”

Evans ended third, 59 seconds up on Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe in the Hyundai i20 N, who’d started the day in 11^th after incurring a time penalty on Friday, winning three stages on his way to hauling himself into fourth overall.

Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Hälttunen and Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja ended the day in 21^st and 22^nd places respectively and each won a stage. Their job was to bring their cars home with no damage in order to attack “super Sunday” where 12 points are available including the five for winning the Wolf Power Stage.

WRC2 cars filled fifth to tenth positions on the final overall leaderboard, headed by Oliver Solberg/Elliot Edmonson in their Skoda Fabia, 1:14 ahead of the Toyota of Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen.

Friday’s sensation Georg Linnamäe spun right at the end of stage 11, dropping from second to fourth in the WRC2 standings. After the morning loop, Pajari, Roope Korhonen, Linnamäe and Mikko Heikkilä were separated by a handful of seconds.

Korhonen slipped behind Linnamäe in stage 14 after Korhonen’s slow time; “I think we have killed our tyres”.

In the Junior WRC, Mille Johannson leads Romet Jürgenson by 55 seconds.

Conditions were typical Swedish rally, nice and grippy in the morning and a churned up mess in the afternoon which played havoc with the studded tyres, leaving everyone fighting for grip with the lost or blunted tungsten studs past their sell-by date. Every single driver mentioned tyre preservation and grip levels at the end of the afternoon’s four stage loop.

The final day may only have three stages but they contain 61km of racing, which is all that separates Lappi from his first WRC win in six years and his second career victory.

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Esapekka Lappi and Jonne Ferm held a narrow lead on the first full day of rallying in the Swedish snow, a day that saw three different names heading the timesheets. The Hyundai Shell Mobis i20 N pair took four stage wins from Friday’s seven stages on a day that saw the reigning champions Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen return for the first time this season.

It snowed consistently throughout the day, with visibility and consistently changing road conditions the major talking point for all the drivers.

Rovanperä took the first stage win on Friday morning, the Toyota Gazoo racing Yaris pair looking comfortable being back on the stages.

Road position was all-important and with the teams running in championship order, it was Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe who fared worst, never running higher than fifth overall.

Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin were equally hampered, and it too showed, while Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja had a bit of an advantage in the second Hyundai running third.

Stage four turned the rally on its head. Both Rovanperä and Tänak had an unscheduled meeting with the unforgiving snowbanks with sufficient force to cause both to retire from the day’s action.

Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston not only took the stage win  in their GR Yaris but the rally lead as well, some 11.4 seconds in hand over Lappi.

After the midday service, it was back to the snow of the forests. Stage five was a strange one – the top five times were all set by WRC2 drivers; Georg Linnamäe/James Morgan (Toyota Yaris), Oliver Solberg/Elliot Edmonson (Skoda), Mikko Heikkalä/Kristian Temonen (Yaris), Lauri Joona/Janni Hussi (Skoda) and Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo der Ohannesian (Skoda) all beat Lappi in his Rally1 Hyundai.

Lappi however, slashed Katsuta’s lead down to 5.4 seconds and one stage later, there was just three tenths in it.

Stage six saw another development. Neuville’s car refused to fire up, so Evans suddenly found himself first on the road, a situation which incensed the Welshman. “I guess the spirit of competition has gone out of the window, he said. “The difference between being first and second on the road is huge but let’s wait to cast judgement before I say something I’ll regret.”

The implication was clear. It was a deliberate ploy by Hyundai to fall back in the running order and gain more time. Neuville however, arrived four minutes late at the time control and received a 40 second penalty, which dropped him to 11^th overall.

Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria were having a whale of a time in their M-Sport Ford Puma, holding third overall after SS6 but with Solberg flying through the worsening conditions, he was under pressure.

Lappi beat Katsuta by 2.1 seconds in stage seven and took the lead by 1.8 seconds with one short stage remaining which Lappi duly won from Katsuta, to end the day 3.2 seconds ahead of the Japanese crew and in third position overall, Solberg.

Fourmaux, with limited experience of arctic racing did a brilliant job to bring his Puma home in fourth 23.7 seconds ahead of the furious Evans. Four Finns filled out the top ten headed by Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota), Roope Korhonen/Anssi Viinikka (Toyota), Heikkila and Joona.

Saturday was shaping up to be a slugfest between Lappi and Katsuta, with the nearest Rally 1 rival, Fourmaux, nearly a minute and a half behind.

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Stage four proved dramatic when Ott Tänak lost the rear of his Hyundai i20 N and clipped a snowbank which spun him around nose first into a snowbank.

The car suffered front-end damage and Tänak is done for the day.

Seventh on the road, Rovanperä hit a snowbank 12.6km into the stage damaging his car and has retired from the morning loop.

It’s been snowing all day and the skies are leaden, making visibility challenging.

At the sharp end of the field, a huge fight is underway between the Toyota Gazoo Racing Yaris of Takamoto Katsuta and the Hyundai i20 N of Esapekka Lappi.

After stage four, with the leaders out, the Japanese driver lead the Finn by 11.4 seconds, which Lappi slashed to 5.3 after stage five and by stage six, the dueling drivers were 0.3 seconds apart!

The drive of the day so far has come from Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria, who hold third in their M-Sport Ford Puma.

Oliver Solberg is fifth overall in his Skoda WRC2 and only 2.8 seconds off Elfyn Evans in fourth. Georg Linnamäe and James Morgan, who set the second fastest time of anyone in stage six, is sixth overall in their Yaris WRC2

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Ott Tanak claimed his first victory with his new squad and M-Sport’s first since Rallye Monte-Carlo last year. The Estonian survived a late scare to win by 18.7s to Hyundai’s Craig Breen. A fumbled team order meant that the Irishman finished ahead of Neuville by 1.3s.

Tanak started the final day by extending his lead over Breen on SS16. The Estonian created an 11.6s gap to his Hyundai rival despite having a minor scare at a braking point in the stage. Breen responded in the next stage, however, outpacing Tanak by 3.1s to cut the lead back to 8.5s.

In the battle for the final spot on the podium, Kalle Rovanpera closed the gap to Thierry Neuville with the advantage of starting with four fresh tyres paying dividends. 1.1s separated the two heading into the last two stages of the rally. The Belgian replied by fitting fresh tyres and winning the stage by 3.8s to Breen, but more importantly, Neuville gained 6s on Rovanpera to re-open the gap to 7.1s

Drama struck though before the final stage as Breen was handed a 10s time penalty for arriving at regroup a minute late. This dropped the Irishman to third with his full-time teammate, Neuville promoted to second place before the Wolf Power Stage.

Neuville was the first of the top three to finish the stage but made a mistake when he nearly overshot a junction 8.7km into the test. This meant that the likely team order that put Neuville ahead of Breen, failed.

“It wasn’t a good stage,” Neuville commented at the finish. “I was a bit scared in the brakings and I was afraid to overshoot. We are here. It was an incredible weekend, a tough weekend, but a great weekend for the team overall. All the drivers did a good job and the car was fast. That’s the positive from this weekend.”

This meant Breen finished 1.8s in front of his teammate and in second place. Breen was delighted with the result but acknowledged that it wasn’t the plan heading into the final stage.

“That wasn’t the plan, but I had no way of knowing. We’re happy – it’s been an incredible weekend and great to be back at the front again,” said Breen.

With Hyundai failing to put Neuville in front of Breen and costing the Irishman time, all that was left to do was for Ott Tanak to bring home the victory in what is his first for M-Sport Ford in only his second start.

“It obviously means a lot to me, to come into a new car and deliver to these guys at M-Sport. It’s a big effort for them to fight against such big manufacturers. I am sure they are getting quite a bit of stress from me, but as long as it’s delivering then we are all winning. It’s great to be part of this team,” said Tanak.

Esapekka Lappi took the power stage honours followed by Elfyn Evans and Rovanpera with the top 5 covered by 0.8s.

Overall standings:

1. Tanak – +2hr 25min 54.5s
2. Breen – +18.7s
3. Neuville – +20.0s
4. Rovanpera – +25.1s
5. Evans – +1min 24s
6. Loubet – +5min 59s

Next up, the teams head to Mexico on 16^th – 19^th March where Sebastien Ogier will return at the wheel of the Toyota GR Yaris Rally 1.

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Pirelli stated that low tyre pressures and road conditions made it unsuitable for the studded winter tyres which caused the failures on Saturday.

On Saturday’s running of the Rally Sweden event, Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi and Craig Breen along with M-Sport’s Ott Tanak, suffered from tyre failures. Lappi’s failure had the worst consequence because it sent the Finn into a snowbank which cost Lappi seven minutes and a possible podium finish. His teammate Breen suffered a similar failure on the same stage whereas Tanak had his failure on SS14 which led the Estonian to overshoot a junction.

Pirelli, the championship’s sole tyre supplier, undertook an investigation into the failures which confirmed that they were running pressures lower than advised by the company. It was also stated by rally activity manager, Terenzio Testoni, that the increase in exposed gravel on the stages also made conditions unsuitable for the winter studded tyres.

“In regard to the episodes that took place today, after our investigations, we understand that there were in some cases tyre pressures that were much lower at the finish than we recommend at the start: we have never seen tyre pressures that low until today,” said Testoni in a statement.

“It must also be said that in the afternoon the road conditions were completely different to the pure winter conditions in the morning, with a lot of exposed gravel and a rough surface, unsuitable for studded tyres.”

At the time of writing, no further tyre failures have been reported on the final day.

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Ott Tanak heads into the final day of Rally Sweden with an 8.6s gap to Craig Breen after a tightly fought battle that included tyre drama for both crews. Thierry Neuville jumped into third 23.7s after the final stage of Saturday’s running.

Day 3 saw battle resume between Ott Tanak and Craig Breen with the latter continuing to lead throughout the morning loop. Breen initially opened a 5.7s gap to his Ford rival over the first two stages but Breen lost the ground he made on the final stage of the morning to end up near his starting gap.

Tanak came out of the gates quickly in the afternoon and outpaced Breen by 1.3s to reduce the gap to 1.7s after SS12. The stage was also where the gravel that was being unearthed by the cars became an issue.

Elfyn Evans made contact with a snowbank after losing the rear end which subsequently dropped the Welshman to sixth after that stage.

It was SS13 though where the drama really ramped up, Breen gave away a further 1.2s after his front left tyre on his Hyundai delaminated near the end of the stage. The Irishman’s issues meant that he only had a lead of 0.5s over Tanak which was then capitalised on by the Estonian at the next stage.

Esapekka Lappi had a similar issue but went off on the final corner. The Finn dropped over seven minutes due to being stuck in a snowbank with spectators trying to free the stricken Hyundai. Rovanpera moved up into the top three as a result.

Tanak’s move into the lead on SS14 wasn’t without issue, the Ford suffered a tyre delamination also, but the time loss didn’t seem too great. With the top two separated by 2.3s, there was a battle behind for the last spot on the podium.

Thierry Neuville had been making steady progress throughout the day and finished the penultimate test on the same overall time as Rovanpera. The Belgian won the stage, outpacing the defending champion by 3.4s to make it extremely tight heading to the final stage of the day.

Neuville won SS15 to cement himself in third with Rovanpera knocked down to fourth but it was Tanak with the biggest gain. A 6.3s delta at the finish compared to Breen meant that Tanak heads into the final day of the rally with an 8.6s advantage.

Despite ending the day in the lead, Tanak wasn’t happy with the tyre issues that led to him running one full slick tyre.

“It was quite unfortunate what happened. I had planned for these two stages and we lost a full tyre on the previous one, so we had a full slick for this one. It was not easy.” Said Tanak.

Standings after Saturday

1. Tanak – 1hr 54min 45.4s
2. Breen – +8.6s
3. Neuville – +23.7s
4. Rovanpera – +27.5s
5. Evans – +57.7s
6. Loubet – +2min 28.1s

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