Elfyn Evans retakes Rally Sweden lead from Takamoto Katsuta

Elfyn Evans stormed back into the overall lead, overturning Takamoto Katsuta’s advantage with a composed and clinical performance on Saturday’s stages.

Elfyn Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin have taken control of Rally Sweden and built up a solid lead in the overall standings. The Toyota driver may be on course for a double victory after overturning the 14-second margin he held on Friday and now leads by 13.3 seconds with three stages remaining in this year’s Rally Sweden.

Closest challenger, last year’s runner-up Takamoto Katsuta, initially struggled to get his Toyota dialed in and immediately lost the advantage he had so impressively clawed back the previous day. Evans, meanwhile, was relentless in his driving—finishing in the top two on four of Saturday’s seven stages and dropping only a few seconds on the other three. He has firmly put himself in a strong position for victory.
“It’s been quite a controlled day, perhaps a bit more searching this afternoon, but overall I’m satisfied. Now it’s about staying sharp on the opening stages tomorrow morning—we know that from last year in particular,” said the Brit, referring to his duel with Katsuta.
Saturday offered a crisp and beautifully frozen winter landscape in the forests outside Umeå. On day two, the classic, high-speed stages of Sarsjöliden were followed by Kolksele and Vännäs. The pace intensified on Saturday, with fantastic winter conditions on a very tricky surface that demanded full concentration from the drivers.
In third place is another Toyota driver, Sami Pajari, who has delivered an impressively consistent performance throughout the event. Pajari finished Saturday strongly by winning both Kolksele SS14 and Vännäs SS12. He holds a 33-second advantage over fourth-placed Oliver Solberg, who—despite four stage wins out of 14—sits exactly one minute behind his teammate Evans in the overall standings.
Toyota has dominated the rally so far, winning 12 of the 14 special stages. Evans and Solberg top the stage-win statistics with four victories each, while Katsuta and Pajari have two apiece.
For Hyundai Motorsport, it has been a much tougher weekend. The best-placed Hyundai driver is Esa-Pekka Lappi in fifth place, 1:09 behind the leader. Adrien Fourmaux follows him in sixth, 1:17 adrift, and only in seventh place comes Thierry Neuville. The team’s only stage win so far came on Bäck SS7, where Neuville set the fastest time.
The M-Sport duo of Jon Armstrong and Josh McErlean are well down the order in eighth and ninth place, 3:25 and 4:47 behind respectively. However, the team had reason to celebrate as Latvian driver Mārtiņš Sesks—who was forced to retire yesterday and was out of podium contention—showed his class by winning the Sarsjöliden SS10 stage ahead of rally leader Evans.