Ice, sunshine and flat-out driving was the order of the day on Rally Sweden on Saturday. It was another day of Toyota domination on the second round of the WRC.
Having lost their lead on Friday to teammate Takamoto Katsuta, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin were in no mood to hang around and on the day’s first stage, rocketed their GR Yaris to the fastest time and re-took the overall lead, which grew to 13.3 seconds after seven fast stages.
Katsuta was bewildered by his lack of pace throughout the day, complaining of a lack of grip and traction, but held off his young teammate Sami Pajari, who rose to the occasion with two stage wins and a strong drive across the others to cement third overall, despite coming under increasing pressure from Oliver Solberg.
Solberg put in a blinder of a time on stage nine, the first of the day, to pass both Adrien Fourmaux and Esapekka Lappi in one fell swoop, completing a Toyota lockout of the top four positions.
Hyundai’s trio of drivers, headed by Lappi had no answer and had to settle for fifth, sixth for Fourmaux and Neuville, who was in no-man’s land in seventh.
Jon Armstrong headed the M-Sport Ford trio with several strong runs, especially after making some midday service adjustments to his Puma’s roll bar. A sixth fastest time on stage 13 and the fifth fastest time on the day ending stage 15 showed the confidence the young Irish driver had in the machinery underneath him.
Joshua McErlean set the fifth fastest time in stage ten, a timely boost for the under-pressure driver in his sophomore year. The two Motorsport Ireland-backed drivers ended the day in eighth and ninth respectively.
M-Sport Ford were all smiles after Martins Sesks won stage ten, but the talented Latvian was still mired in 43rd overall following his Friday retirement.
Roope Korhonen still held sway in WRC2, holding off Teemu Suninen and Lauri Joona.
Sunday’s itinerary has just three stages and 61km of racing lying in wait…
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