Evans on cusp of Rally Sweden win with Katsuta just behind
16th February 2025Toyota’s Eflyn Evans is on the cusp of victory at the World Rally Championship’s Rally Sweden, but his teammate Takamoto Katsuta is keeping him honest just behind him.
Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool
Last time out, Evans missed out on the win in Rallye Monte Carlo, being beaten by Toyota teammate Sebastien Ogier. However, he is on course to take his first victory of the season, his second in three rallies, having won the 2024 season finale in Japan in November.
Evans had led the pace for the majority of the rally but the Welshman had lost the rally lead to both Hyundai’s Ott Tanak (SS7) on Friday and Katsuta (SS16) on Sunday. The Welshman bit back and regained the lead on the following stage on both occasions.
Only Thursday, in the single opening stage, and Saturday did Evans hold the rally lead without disruption.
Going into Super Sunday, Katsuta took over as rally leader as Evans could only put in the fifth fastest time on the first run of Vӓstervik whereas the Japanese driver took the stage win. Katsuta led by 4.5 seconds over Evans.
On the second pass, Evans took the stage win going two seconds faster than Kasuta’s time on the first pass. His Japanese teammate finished fourth, 8.2 seconds adrift.
This means, going into the Wolf Power Stage, Umeå 2, Evans leads the rally with a narrow 3.7-second margin over his teammate who will be gunning for his maiden WRC victory.
Across the Super Sunday points, after two stages, Evans holds an even narrower margin over Katsuta as the two teammates are separated by 0.7 seconds with Tanak in third. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera complete the point-scoring positions in fourth and fifth respectively.
The first car is set to head out at 12:15pm local time (11:15am GMT).
Read more WRC here:
- Evans leads penultimate day of WRC Rally Sweden 2025
- Evans regains lead of WRC Rally Sweden in second day
- 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
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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.
