Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston lead Rally Sweden after Friday’s six stages, heading a Toyota one-two-three, 2.8 seconds ahead of Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin.
Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen completed the provisional podium with Esapekka Lappi and Enni Mälkönen the leading Hyundai WRT crew in fourth.
Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria held fifth ahead of the pre-event favourite, Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson, who had a dramatic morning loop.
Solberg won Thursday’s short night stage and took the early rally lead, followed by Evans, Katsuta, and Pajari.
The Friday morning loop saw Evans take the rally by the scruff of the neck and wring his Toyota GR Yaris’ neck, taking the lead on the opening stage of the day, with Katsuta in hot pursuit.
Solberg had a brief spin and stall, dropping a handful of seconds while Martins Sesks and Renars Francis suffered a double puncture on the M-Sport Puma, conceding over seven minutes to Evans.
Jon Armstrong and Shayne Byrne also suffered a puncture as did Lorenzo Bertelli, the TGR customer driver.
In stage three, Solberg had a massive off into the snow, ploughing well off the road but somehow managed to get back on to the road, albeit with a puncture, which caused him to twice clip a snowbank as he headed towards the flying finish.
Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe also had a moment in stage three which cost the Belgian pair 1’20” while Sesks had yet another puncture. He ended the stage with considerable damage to his Puma after the tyre delaminated ; he was forced to bolt the ‘least worst’ tyre onto his car to complete the last stage of the loop.
Once back in service, the damage was assessed as too severe to continue, and added to the time lost, Sesks was retired for the day so the M-Sport technicians could repair the car for Saturday.
Solberg took the stage four scratch time while Evans returned to service with a lead of 14.5 seconds.
Back in action after the midday break, Katsuta hit top gear, winning stage five, slashing his deficit to Evans by nearly nine seconds. After stage six, Evans’ lead was down to 2.5 seconds after the popular Japanese driver took another stage win.
Thierry Neuville found his Friday mojo and raced to his and Hyundai’s first stage win of the weekend on stage seven, but all eyes were on the lead battle.
Katsuta was only third quickest through the stage, but crucially, he was 2.6 seconds faster than fifth fastest Evans, taking the overall lead by 0.1 seconds.
Solberg won the final Umea Sprint stage, closing to within 0.7 seconds of fifth-placed Fourmaux while Katsuta added 2.7 seconds to his cushion over Evans.
Roope Korhonen leads WRC2 by 10 seconds from Teemu Suninen with Lauri Joona filling of the category’s provisional podium.
Mikko Heikkila made a small mistake in stage two, but the consequences were severe, beached in the snow. He eventually got out with the help of spectators, but 20 minutes were lost.
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