WRC 2025 Rd.2 Day 2 | 2025 | PRESS RELEASE | WRC

Rally Sweden: Day 2 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing duo lead a tight fight on snow

2025.2.14 (Fri)

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team drivers Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta finished an exciting first full day of Rally Sweden leading a top five that is covered by less than 10 seconds.

The drivers enjoyed excellent winter rallying conditions on Friday, which was the longest day of the event with 124.32 competitive kilometres to be driven across seven stages. Tyre management would play a crucial role as drivers learn about the studded rubber from the new tyre supplier for 2025, Hankook.

With sub-zero temperatures helping to create a solid ice base without too much fresh snow, running first on the road was not as much of a disadvantage as it can sometimes be in Sweden and Evans capitalised well. Already leading after Thursday night’s opening stage, the Welshman added to his advantage by winning the morning’s first test and was then second quickest in the following two stages to lead Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) by 1.9 seconds at the end of the morning loop.

Katsuta was also strong in the morning, ending it 8.4s off the lead in fourth overall, and began the afternoon with a superb stage win to leap into the lead. Evans was more disadvantaged there creating new lines for the second pass for his rivals to follow, but he bounced back in SS6 where he reclaimed the lead. Ott Tänak (Hyundai) became the latest to lead after SS7, but Evans ended the day with another stage win in Umeå Sprint to end the day on top, 0.6s in front of Katsuta.

Kalle Rovanperä was engaged in a close battle with Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) for fifth place during the morning, before an overshoot at a junction cost some time in the first stage of the afternoon. He ended the day 16.4s behind Neuville in sixth.

Sami Pajari showed the speed to challenge the best times in the first stage of the day before an impact with a snowbank pushed a tyre off the rim, costing him over 40s. He later went on to set a strong top-three time in SS7 and is ninth overall.

In the WRC2 class the GR Yaris Rally2 has won every stage so far and occupies the top three overall, with Sweden’s Oliver Solberg (Printsport) leading Finland’s Roope Korhonen (Rautio Motorsport) and Estonia’s Georg Linnamäe (RedGrey).

Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“It’s been a very exciting day. I was a bit worried this afternoon on the second pass that Elfyn might suffer opening the road and lose the chance to fight for the victory, but he’s been driving really superbly to be the first car and to finish the day on top. Taka has also been doing a really good performance, which we know that he can do on this surface. The new tyre is very different and they are both adapting well to it. For Kalle it’s maybe taking a bit more time, but I’m sure that it will come. To have a one-two after the first day means it’s been a really good day, but the fight is tight. When there are so many drivers covered by so few seconds, we need to push and I’m sure tomorrow will be another exciting day.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s been very close out there today. Sometimes it’s suited us to be running at the front and sometimes it hasn’t. This morning it was pretty good for us but the grip was still quite changeable and difficult to read. The afternoon was not so kind for us and even the last stage felt quite messy but still the time was good. Compared to how it’s been when we’ve opened the road here in the past, we should probably be quite happy to be in the lead after Friday, but the gaps are very tight so let’s see how tomorrow plays out.”

Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It hasn’t been the best day for us. I was struggling more than I was expecting with my feeling in the car and how my driving style is working together with the tyre. We tried many small things during the day and made some steps, so we had a slightly better feeling this afternoon, but we’re still not in the place we want to be. If we can find something more for tomorrow then hopefully it will be a better day and we can be more among the top times.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Today has been very good. It has felt very comfortable: we have not been pushing crazy hard but still the times have been coming. I’m enjoying it a lot so it’s going well so far but there’s still some way to go. At the moment it’s very tight in the top five; one mistake could cost a lot, so I will try to continue in the same way and have another clean day tomorrow. The starting positions should be more equal and the conditions should be good so I’m looking forward to it.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“The feeling was really good in the first stage this morning: it felt quite clean with a nice flow and I didn’t feel I was pushing that much. In one place we hit the snowbank, which is quite normal on a snow rally, but for some reason the tyre came off the rim. It was disappointing to lose so much time, and without that it could have been a really good day. But it’s all about the learning, and there’s still two more days to drive and enjoy.”

End of day two (Friday):
1 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 1h08m36.5s
2 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +0.6s
3 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2.5s
4 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +7.9s
5 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +9.1s
6 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +25.5s
7 Mārtiņš Sesks/Renārs Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +43.6s
8 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m02.6s
9 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m10.6s
10 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m22.5s
(Results as of 18:40 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

What's next?
Saturday follows a similar format to Friday but is a shorter day overall, with 101.96 competitive kilometres. A loop of three stages to the west of Umeå is repeated after mid-day service and includes Vännäs and Sarsjöliden in identical form to 2024, as well as the new Kolksele. The day ends with a double-length version of the Umeå stage.