2025 Rally Sweden – Thursday report
Elfyn Evans laid down an early marker at Rally Sweden, storming to victory in Thursday night time’s opening stage to steer the FIA World Rally Championship’s second spherical in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.
The Welshman, co-driven by Scott Martin, topped the Umeå Dash stage – a high-speed blast beneath the lights simply moments from the rally’s service park – by a mere half-second. Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanperä and Hyundai’s Ott Tänak couldn’t be separated, posting equivalent occasions to share second place.
Evans, who claimed Rally Sweden glory in 2020, arrives in Umeå sitting second within the championship standings. With Monte-Carlo winner Sébastien Ogier absent, he’ll tackle the problem of working first on the street by way of Friday’s gruelling 124km leg.
“It was fairly okay,” Evans stated. “Clearly [judging] the braking factors is tough at midnight, however it was all okay.”
Adrien Fourmaux continued his robust kind after a Hyundai debut podium final month, ending fourth at simply 1.2sec adrift. The Frenchman examined the boundaries early, glancing a snowbank however nonetheless ending 2.5sec away from his fifth-placed team-mate, reigning champion Thierry Neuville.
Neuville admitted he had been too cautious and likewise flagged a lingering intercom subject.
“Each time I do that stage, I’m all the time on the restrict with the braking – however this time, I used to be early all over the place,” he smiled. “We had a difficulty with the intercom this morning on shakedown, and it’s nonetheless there.”
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta slotted into sixth, 1.7sec behind Neuville and simply 0.2sec forward of Sami Pajari’s comparable Toyota. M-Sport Ford’s Puma Rally1 trio rounded out the leaderboard, with Irishman Josh McErlean in eighth, adopted by Grégoire Munster and Mārtiņš Sesks.
