Evans regains lead of WRC Rally Sweden in second day
14th February 2025Toyota’s Elfyn Evans regained the rally lead of the World Championship’s Rally Sweden as the Welshman pipped both teammate Takamoto Katsuta and Hyundai’s Ott Tanak.
Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool
Welshman Evans remained the rally leader after the longest day of action with a total of 124.32km of competitive action being held on the Swedish snow.
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta was on course to redeem his earlier Swedish misfortunes, having crashed out in Sweden last year, as the Japanese driver found himself in third despite hauling the weight of an extra tyre.
Five different drivers took stage wins on Friday amongst the snowy Swedish forests, Evans and Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux shared the most stage wins with two each. Hyundai’s Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville, and Katsuta all secured one stage win apiece on the second day.
WRC Rally Sweden: Evans takes overnight lead pipping Rovanpera
How the second day unfolded…
Across the day, Evans had lost the rally lead on Friday’s stage seven, to Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, but Evans regained the lead after the final stage pipping both Tanak and teammate Takamoto Katsuta.
At the end of the first full day, Evans was accompanied by both Katsuta and Tanak who completed the podium positions in second and third respectively.
The Japanese driver, who crashed out in Sweden last year, finished the day in second just 0.6 seconds off the pace whereas Tanak was 2.5 seconds off Evans’s time.
Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux and defending champion Thierry Neuville had rounded out the top five, in fourth and fifth. The former took two stage wins early on in the day, in SS3 and SS4, whereas the latter took a stage win in SS7.
Kalle Rovanpera was the second-slowest Toyota Yaris as the two-time world champion finished the day in sixth, in between Neuville and M-Sport Ford’s leading driver Martins Sesks, seventh. Sami Pajari was the slowest Yaris in Sweden, in ninth, behind M-Sport’s Joshua McErlean (eighth).
M-Sport’s Gregoire Muster completed the top 10, in 10th, one-minute 22.5 seconds off the pace. Jourdan Sederidis completed the WRC Rally1 runners as the Greek sat 43rd in the overall classification, 13 minutes and 12 seconds off Evans’s benchmark.
Read more WRC here:
- WRC Rally Sweden 2025: Preview
- Elfyn Evans to ‘try and adapt’ to Hankook tyres in Rally Sweden
- Hyundai set to bring a ‘redeveloped’ car to WRC Rally Sweden
- Toyota expecting ‘tricky’ start but hoping for Rally Sweden win
- Rovanpera deems Arctic Rally ‘good and valuable’ test for WRC Rally Sweden
- Verstappen to compete in ERC season for 2025
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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.
