Rally Sweden 2024: Rovanpera returns to the top on opening day
16th February 2024Toyota’s returning world champion, Kalle Rovanpera topped out the opening day of Rally Sweden leading a trio of Yaris’.
Rovanpera, who made his return to the World Rally Championship this weekend as part of his part-time schedule, jumped to the top of the timing boards once more.
The Umea Sprint 1, opening stage, was a short 5.16km speed test to open up the event under the cover of darkness.
Rovanpera stormed into the rally lead as he pipped his teammate, Takamoto Katsuta by 1.4 seconds as their teammate Elfyn Evans rounded out the podium positions. The trio of Toyota’s finished first, second and third respectively.
Hyundai’s Ott Tanak was the ‘best of the rest’ leader, in fourth, 2.1 seconds off the reigning champions’ pace. He was closely followed by M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux who put in the same time as the Hyundai’s Estonian.
Thierry Neuville, Hyundai, was the first driver to complete the test – as the championship leader – and ultimately swept the road for those behind. In turn, the Belgian finished the day down in sixth, 2.7s off.
Eskapekka Lappi (Hyundai) and Gregoire Munster (Ford) rounded out the WRC Rally1 contenders down in seventh and eighth respectively.
Of the WRC2 drivers, Oliver Solberg made his people proud as the young 22-year-old jumped to the top of the WRC2 timing boards – ninth overall – with his time of 3:27.1 (8.8s off Rovanpera).
Fellow Scandinavian Roope Korhonen, of Finland, completed the overall top 10 in his Rally2 Yaris three seconds behind Solberg.
That’s all for the article; Rally Sweden 2024: Rovanpera returns to the top on opening day!
Read more WRC here:
- WRC 2024 Rally Sweden – Preview: Hyundai on Toyota’s heels
- Monte-Carlo a ‘good weekend’ for Toyota who took home a haul of points
- Rallye Monte-Carlo: Neuville takes victory in season opener
- Rallye Monte-Carlo: Neuville takes rally lead but Ogier remains close
- Rallye Monte-Carlo: Evans retains lead but Ogier is on the hunt
- Rallye Monte Carlo: Evans clears opening day of WRC season
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
