Toyota’s Elfyn Evans (above) emerged from an ever-changing Friday battle at WRC Rally Sweden with a slender lead as an intense fight for the top spots saw just 9.1s covering the leading five drivers.
The FIA World Rally Championship’s only true snow-and-ice rally delivered a day of fluctuating fortunes, with multiple lead changes across seven super-fast special stages defined by solid-ice surfaces and the ever-present snow banks. Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 driver Evans set the morning pace and led at midday service, but as the conditions evolved for the second run through the same loop of stages, so did the leaderboard.
Takamoto Katsuta briefly hit the front after the afternoon opener in his GR Yaris, before Evans responded immediately to reclaim the top spot. Then, as darkness fell over the 6.71-mile Back 2 stage, Hyundai’s Ott Tanak edged ahead – only to lose his advantage on the leg-ending Umea Sprint 2 test as worn studded tires cost him valuable time. Evans seized the opportunity, clocking the fastest time to move back into the lead once more. Katsuta’s strong pace kept him within just 0.6s of his Toyota teammate, while Tanak slipped to third, albeit only 2.5s off the lead.
Adrien Fourmaux was one of the standout performers in the morning, winning two stages and running as high as second in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1. His momentum slowed slightly in the afternoon, but the Frenchman still ended the day a strong fourth, just 5.4s behind teammate Tanak. A stall on the afternoon opener – at the same tricky corner that also caught out Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera and M-Sport Ford’s Josh McErlean – was Fourmaux’s only slight setback.
Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux ran as high as second before ending the day in fourth overall. Red Bull Content Pool
Reigning WRC champ Thierry Neuville endured a frustrating start to the second round of his title defense, struggling with understeer in his i20 N Rally1, but finding some sort of rhythm later in the day. A stage win helped him claw back some time, and he completed the leg only 9.1s down on leader Evans in a super-tight top five. Two-time WRC champ Rovanpera, who’s back to full-time mode after running a part-time campaign in 2024, had an uncharacteristically subdued day on the way to an overnight sixth in his GR Yaris. Not helped by his overshoot on the afternoon opener, the Finn failed to break into the top three on any of the day’s tests and trailed Neuville by 16.4s at the overnight halt.
Martiņs Sesks, who made his Rally1 debut with M-Sport Ford last year, impressed on his return to the team’s roster of Puma Rally1s, posting a pair of top-three stage times on his way to seventh. Teammate McErlean, in only his second Rally1 start after finishing seventh in last month’s Monte Carlo opener, continued to build confidence and finished the day eighth.
Martins Sesks was the best of M-Sport Ford’s fleet, holding seventh at the end of Friday’s leg.
Toyota’s Sami Pajari showed flashes of strong pace, but was hampered by an early brush with a snowbank that dislodged a tire from the rim and limited him to ninth, while Gregoire Munster completed the top 10 in the third of M-Sport Ford’s four-car Rally1 fleet.
In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, home hero Oliver Solberg picked up right where he left off 12 months ago in Umea, leading the class with another commanding performance on Friday’s stages.
Although Solberg’s season unofficially began at the Monte Carlo Rally last month, Sweden marks the first of his seven point-scoring events of the year – and the 23-year-old son of 2003 WRC champ Petter is making it count in style. Having dominated the field last year in a Skoda Fabia RS, Solberg showed the same precision behind the wheel of his new-for-2025 PrintSport Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, reeling off five fastest stage times to kick off the weekend. However, his dominance was slightly curtailed in the afternoon loop as he hinted at some handling issues with his Yaris.
“ really difficult to drive, doing different things all the time and really difficult to control,” he said. “So, yeah, not easy to drive, and I’m just trying to keep the lead.”
That opened the door for fellow GR Yaris drivers Georg Linnamae and Roope Korhonen to claim stage wins, but Solberg still maintained a 23.8s advantage over Korhonen – and sat 11th overall – by the end of the day.
Taking up where he left off in 2024, Oliver Solberg again dominated WRC2 – but this time in a Toyota. Red Bull Content Pool
Saturday’s penultimate leg offers plenty of opportunity for more plot twists and changes among the leading crews. It includes seven more ice-filled, high-speed stages outside of Umea totaling 63.36 competitive miles.
WRC Rally Sweden, positions after Friday/Leg One, SS8
1 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 1h08m36.5s
2 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +0.6s
3 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2.5s
4 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +7.9s
5 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +9.1s
6 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +25.5s
7 Martins Sesks/Renars Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +43.6s
8 Joshua McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m02.6s
9 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m10.6s
10 Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m22.5s
11 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2 leader) +3m16.2s
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