Teemu Suninen is clinging to the Rally Sweden lead by two seconds after a difficult run through Torsby with a loose light-pod.
The M-Sport driver took his first ever lead of a world championship rally by setting a spectacular time through the second run of Svullrya, putting himself ahead of fellow Finn Jari-Matti Latvala.
However Suninen's light-pod became loose during the final stage of the day, losing him time from the distraction and lack of visability as the beam was directed towards the sky.
Latvala held onto second until Friday’s final stage, when his Yaris became lodged deep inside a snowbank and Ott Tanak, the leader after the morning loop, took the place.
Tanak had a strong morning, going fastest in two of the three stages run before lunch but struggled in the afternoon’s slushy conditions and was leapfrogged by Latvala and Suninen.
Andreas Mikkelsen has claimed the final podium position going into Saturday, ahead of Elfyn Evans who recovered from a spin that left him down in 10th position at the end of the morning loop to end the day in fourth, collecting two stage wins in the process.
Esapekka Lappi sits in fifth with Sebastien Loeb just behind after struggling to adapt to his first Rally Sweden in six years.
Thierry Neuville was the rally leader going into Friday but a couple of spins in the first stage of the afternoon caused damage on the front left of his i20 and he finishes the day in an underwhelming seventh.
Kris Meeke sits in eighth ahead of Pontius Tidemand in the third M-Sport car who struggled through wiper issues, a throttle pedal sensor failure and understeer to get to the end of Friday’s running.
Ole Christian Veiby is the first of the WRC2 drivers in tenth, with Mads Ostberg heading up the WRC2 Pro field after Kalle Rovenpova lost time stuck in a snowbank.
Sebastien Ogier struggled with his first on the road position was running in seventh before getting stuck in a snowbank during SS6.
Ogier was forced to forfeit the rest of the day as unluckily the incident occurred in a place where there was no spectators to come to the Frenchman’s rescue.
The returning Marcus Gronholm was also caught out in the snow drifts and ploughed into the forest in only the fourth stage of the event.
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