WRC Sweden podium exceeded Evans’ expectations

Leaving Sweden as the top points scorer from the weekend exceeded Elfyn Evans’ expectations at the World Rally Championship’s snow event.

Before the event, Toyota driver Evans downplayed his Sweden chances given the disadvantage of starting second on the road.

However he finished the rally in second, 29.6s behind winner Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi.

While not a fan of the 2024 points system, the Welshman benefitted from the new rules.

Evans survived a wild 360-degree spin on Friday to claim 13 points for finishing Saturday in third overall. He then pushed hard on the final day to top the Super Sunday classification to bag seven points, before securing four points from the rally-ending Power Stage.

Evans also benefitted from team-mates Kalle Rovanpera and Takamoto Katsuta, and Hyundai title rival Ott Tanak crashing out of the event across Friday and Saturday.

As a result, Evans’ total of 24 points was more than any other driver from the event, outscoring even rally winner Lappi by five points.

“It has been a really up and down weekend, obviously it was very difficult conditions on Friday especially to be early on the road,” said Evans.

“I think luckily for us in a way there was a lot of casualties on Friday and that opened up the opportunity to climb up the leaderboard.

Evans finished second, but outscored Lappi due to his pace on Sunday

Photo by: Vincent Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport

“We were lucky in moments to get away with our spin for example. Sometimes you have to have luck on your side. This time it worked out for us, and we got some good points in the end.

“I would have taken second place at the start of the week, so it is hard to be too unhappy.

“I wasn’t expecting too much coming into the weekend in all honestly with the road position we had and the feeling in the car at Arctic Lapland Rally [the week prior] was getting better but not really where we would really like to have it.

“I was not so optimistic, so to have it turn out like this I think we can be reasonably satisfied.”

Evans now trails championship leader Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville by three points heading into the third round in Kenya next month.