WRC Sweden: Rovanpera closes in on victory, battle for second intensifies

Rovanpera will head into the final stage of the World Rally Championship’s snow event equipped with a healthy 21.6s lead after nearest rival and team-mate Evans crashed out on the day’s first test.

With Evans removed from the action, the battle for second intensified between Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi, with 3.7s separating the pair in Neuville’s favour.

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta has climbed to fourth following Evans retirement ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Gus Greensmith and Hyundai’s Oliver Solberg, who are several minutes adrift of the lead group.

M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux retired from the event this morning after stopping on a road section due to a continuation of Saturday night's technical issue that afflicted his Puma.

Despite a lack of hybrid power Rovanpera was able to win Sunday’s first stage by 2.2s from Neuville to extend his rally lead after Evans, who was handed a 10s penalty overnight, was ruled out following crash into a snowbank.

On the following test, which will host the final power stage, Rovanpera was unable to repeat the feat, clocking the fifth fastest time some 3.3s behind stage winner Ott Tanak (Hyundai).

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

However, all eyes turned to the battle for second between Neuville and Lappi. The former clipped a snowbank and dropped 1.7s to third-placed Lappi, leaving only 3.2s separating the pair.

"I saw a lot of parts on the road and a lot of snowbanks were destroyed,” said Neuville. “I struggled with the feeling in all of the braking points, so I lose a lot of time there.”

Neuville regrouped and responded on the penultimate stage of the rally, taking 0.5s out of Lappi to win the stage with Rovanpera third fastest, 3.1s back.

Rovanpera admitted he wasn’t pushing, joining the majority of crews that chose to cruise through the test to protect their tyres, ahead of the final power stage that concludes the rally this afternoon.

WRC Rally Sweden - Classification after SS17

Cla	Driver/Codriver	Car	Class	Total Time	Gap
1	Kalle Rovanperä Jonne Halttunen	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	RC1	1:58'08.000
2	Esapekka Lappi Janne Ferm	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	RC1	1:58'35.900	27.900
3	Thierry Neuville Martijn Wydaeghe	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	RC1	1:58'36.500	28.500
4	Takamoto Katsuta Aaron Johnston	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	RC1	2:00'03.000	1'55.000
5	Oliver Solberg Elliott Edmondson	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	RC1	2:00'49.300	2'41.300
6	Gus Greensmith Jonas Andersson	Ford Puma Rally1	RC1	2:01'16.000	3'08.000
7	Craig Breen Paul Nagle	Ford Puma Rally1	RC1	2:03'15.700	5'07.700
8	Andreas Mikkelsen Torstein Eriksen	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	WRC2	2:04'30.600	6'22.600
9	Ole-Christian Veiby Stig Rune Skjaermoen	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	WRC2	2:04'35.400	6'27.400
10	Nikolay Gryazin Konstantin Aleksandrov	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	WRC2	2:05'06.400	6'58.400
View full results