How Evans is becoming a Rally Sweden master

“Elfyn is driving at such an amazing and consistent level right now, and he’s really becoming a master of this event.”

This is high praise coming from Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala, who happens to be one of only four drivers in 73 editions of Rally Sweden with more wins (four) at the event than Elfyn Evans' three victories (Stig Blomqvist, seven, Bjorn Waldegard, five, and Marcus Gronholm, five, being the others), after the Welsh driver added to his 2020 and 2024 triumphs last weekend.

“I’m not sure I’m chasing him [Jari-Matti], I’m pretty happy with three wins, especially as a non-Scandinavian, I don’t think it is too bad. We don’t know what the future holds but I’m pretty happy with this weekend,” said Evans, in his typical modest way, as he joined the likes of Sebastien Ogier, Tommi Makinen and Kenneth Eriksson on three Sweden wins. "Sweden is always one of those rallies where you hope for good things, but it is always a fine edge and easy to make mistakes. I’m happy to come through it cleanly and I think overall it was a strong performance. There were some bits I wasn’t fully happy with but on the whole it was good."

Success on Sweden’s iconic snow stages has largely been controlled by Scandinavian drivers, with the legendary Sebastien Loeb only breaking that stranglehold in 2004. But on last weekend’s showing it is hard to disagree with Latvala; Evans is indeed becoming a master of taming the quite frankly bonkers high-speed snow and ice stages that require drivers to disengage their brains in pursuit of glory.

But the run to victory for Evans and co-driver Scott Martin provided yet further evidence that the five-time WRC title runner-up is operating at such an incredible level. Evans’ last major error arrived in Greece 2024, where he rolled in stage 11. In the 19 events since he has finished all of them inside the top six, including 13 visits to the podium and four wins. A run of form very rarely seen in WRC history.

Last weekend in Sweden was another vintage faultless Evans performance. The Welshman combined speed, experience and impeccable consistency to see off a challenge from Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta for the second year running, to claim 12th career WRC win. Like last year this was another statement of intent, especially after witnessing Oliver Solberg announce himself as a title contender by romping to victory in Monte Carlo.

Solberg, on a high from his Monte Carlo victory, took an early lead but it wasn't to last

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Such was the manner of Solberg’s performance in Monte Carlo, expectation levels were high that the Swede would pick up where he left off at his home rally - an event he's won three times at WRC2 level. That appeared to eventuate on Thursday night as Solberg won the opening stage but lost the lead to Evans after Friday’s first stage. Solberg’s victory hopes suffered a blow one stage later when a mistake resulted in an off deep into a snowbank - that were surprisingly smaller and acted as less of a safety net this year due to a lack of snow.

In truth, Solberg was incredibly fortunate to survive the scare with only a puncture and the loss of 30 seconds. The Swede never really found the sweet spot on the stages, admitting that opening road was much harder than he anticipated. Ultimately, he would recover from falling to sixth to finish the rally in fourth overall.

“I was a bit hesitant in the first one so I thought I would drive like normal, but there was way too much snow off line. There were no snowbanks and I was lucky to get back on the road,” he said. “If I had braked and stopped I would have not gone so far in the ditch but I probably would have stayed too, so I went full throttle before I went into the ditch as I thought it would be right. I put a lot of expectation on myself, but I think this weekend was a good learning curve to understand how it is to be first on the road.”

"I don’t think there is really a secret other than to drive as quick as you can" Elfyn Evans

Even though he started just one position behind Solberg on the road, Evans quickly raced into a 14.5s lead over Katsuta as a repeat of the 2025 head-to-head with his Japanese team-mate began to unfold.

Evans was unable to hold onto his lead through Friday afternoon, as stage conditions worsened for those at the front. Katsuta made the most of his road position and attacked, winning two of the afternoon stages and the Japanese driver, searching for a maiden WRC win, overhauled Evans after stage seven to eventually end Friday with a 2.8s lead.

However, on Saturday Evans fought back which coincided with a baffled Katsuta that struggled for grip, losing studs from his tyres. Evans claimed stage nine to move into 4.4s lead which grew to 18.0s after stage 13. As Saturday afternoon progressed Katsuta managed to find his form again and began to take time out of Evans, to reduce the gap to 13.3s after stage 15.

But it was a much larger lead over the Japanese compared to 12 months ago when Evans had a slender 3.0s advantage. This time there was no repeat of the drama of losing the lead on the opening stage of Sunday morning. Instead, Evans delivered a professional and impressive display, and one that sent a message to his rivals on his way to victory.

Like last year it was Katsuta who posed the biggest challenge to Evans, but he was unable to mount a sustained attack

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Now the joint-most successful non-Scandinavian in the event’s history, what is the secret to his success on the snow? It was a question that was met with another typical modest response from the Rally Sweden master.

“I don’t know. I don’t think there is really a secret other than to drive as quick as you can,” he said. “I think it felt quite efficient behind the wheel and more than a crazy push let’s say. Of course, you have to take some risks if you want to win but at the same time I felt it was coming quite naturally.”

After the agonising title defeat to Ogier last year by a mere four points, Evans admitted that there were moments where he didn’t maximise and squeeze as many points out of a weekend as possible. That cannot be said in Sweden, taking nine from a possible 10 Super Sunday points to leave Sweden with almost a maximum 34-point haul.

It’s a feat that again outlines Evans’ astonishing consistency. Last year after two events he had accrued 61 points and this year it is 60. With Ogier once again absent from Sweden after choosing not to add the snow rally to his partial campaign, Evans leads the championship by 13 points from Solberg. But after last year he isn’t getting carried away by the strong start to the season.

“It is very early days to talk about that and we know how last year ended. It doesn’t mean too much in terms of the championship but if we look at a rally by rally, we can be happy with the last two events,” he added.

Katsuta edging closer to maiden WRC win

While there were smiles in the Evans camp, Rally Sweden was another ‘close but no cigar’ moment for Katsuta, who has amassed a serious following in the service park willing the likeable Japanese driver to break his victory duck. The frustration was plain to see on his face crossing the finish line 14.3s behind Evans for a fifth second-place finish of his career.

“I’m happy for the team for sure and happy for Elfyn as he deserved it and was again very strong this year, but personally I’m not really happy, especially Saturday,” said Katsuta. “We are still investigating what happened but clearly one tyre was not properly working for some reason and losing a lot of studs. The [Hankook] guys are now checking it and are working hard to improve it. I feel pain as I wanted to fight until the end. I don’t think it would have been a different result because Elfyn was strong enough, but it is very good for the team and I just need to improve more.”

Katsuta had to settle for runner-up again in Sweden, but was part of an all-Toyota top four

Photo by: TOYOTA GAZOO Racing

There were however smiles on the face of Toyota’s Sami Pajari, as he bounced back from a nightmare Monte Carlo to claim his second career podium after delivering one of the most impressive drives of his career to date. “I need to be really satisfied. Big thanks to the team once again and the huge amount of support I got after Monte. This weekend we were back on the pace and happy to be back on the podium. We need to keep pushing to do even better,” said Pajari.

What happened to Hyundai?

For the second event in a row Hyundai was absent from the fight at the first as Toyota locked out the top-four positions in Sweden. The Japanese brand also became the first manufacturer since Citroen in 2010 to record back-to-back podium lockouts in the WRC.

Hyundai had hoped to have all three cars in the fight for the podium at Rally Sweden, an event where it managed to beat Toyota to victory in 2024 with Esapekka Lappi.

"I changed roughly 30-35 settings during the weekend and we were all on different settings at some point, and there is no difference" Thierry Neuville

However, the rally quickly developed into a test session as Hyundai resorted to trying a myriad of different set-ups across its three crews in a bid to unlock pace from its i20 N Rally1 car. Once again, a lack of traction being generated by Hyundai’s upgraded ‘Evo’ car was at the heart of the team’s woes in Sweden, leaving its drivers Thierry Neuville, Adrien Fourmaux and Lappi struggling for speed and confidence to compete with the Toyotas. Fourmaux ultimately ended up as the top Hyundai in fifth, 1m50.3s behind Evans.

Improvements were made across the weekend, culminating in three fastest stage times as Neuville ended the rally by taking out the Power Stage by 0.1s from Evans. This came after the 2024 world champion revealed that he had tried 30 to 35 different set-ups during the event in a quest for speed.

“I don’t know what to say,” said a frustrated Neuville, who finished a distant seventh having lost more than minute clearing a misted windscreen after an off in stage three. “We can say that when there is still hope, there is life, but we need to put all of our courage together and try to work hard to bring us back to where we belong.

“I changed roughly 30-35 settings during the weekend and we were all on different settings at some point, and there is no difference. The braking was a disaster, basically we have no grip and lots of understeer. We are doing a lot but somehow we don’t work in the right direction.”

Neuville cut a dejected figure in Sweden, having gone through over 30 set-up options in a bid to find speed from his Hyundai

Photo by: Hyundai

Lappi, making his return to the team for the first time since 2024, was also at a loss to explain the lack of speed compared to the car he drove to victory in Sweden two years ago. The Finn was the fastest Hyundai through the weekend before deciding to allow full-time Hyundai driver Fourmaux through to fifth on the penultimate stage.

“It was frustrating to see how far we are from the Toyotas as a team. At first I thought it was just me and that I wasn’t up to speed yet, but in the end, it was not only me. But for us to be the fastest Hyundai was satisfying after one and a half years away,” said Lappi. “We are for sure lighter and we are missing the battery and the hybrid [system from 2024] and there are also many updates with the geometries. I don’t know what is wrong at the moment and why we can’t be faster than that.”

New signing Armstrong again leads the way for M-Sport

Once again Jon Armstrong proved to be the top M-Sport-Ford runner in only his second Rally1 start as he finished eighth, 1m59.9s ahead of his more expected team-mate Josh McErlean. Sweden began in the worst way for M-Sport as a tyre pressure misjudgement contributed to punctures for Armstrong, McErlean and the returning Martins Sesks.

Sesks was forced to retire after suffering three deflations on Friday but did bounce back with a fastest time in stage 10 on Saturday.

“Certainly it was frustrating after such a good pre-event test for all drivers to see Friday pan out like it did. However, there was no point to then sit back and feel the weekend was wasted – in fact, we did quite the opposite,” said M-Sport team principal Richard Millener.

“Martins coming back on Saturday morning with a fantastic stage win was a high for the team, reflecting all the hard work they have been putting in. Also, Jon and Shane’s [co-driver Byrne] pace all weekend has been a pleasure to watch – beating a former world champion on both of Sunday's long stages was a clear sign that Jon deserves his place in the team and excites me for what future events could hold. For Josh and Eoin [co-driver, Treacy] it was important to get a solid result after Monte and that is exactly what they have done.”

Armstrong shone for M-Sport on another tough outing

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool