It was a short 5.16km stage that got the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship underway in Sweden and as expected Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen took the win by 1.4 seconds in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Yaris Rally1.
Starting seventh on the road was always going to be an advantage over the early championship leader Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe in their Hyundai Shell Mobis i20 N, the Belgian Monte winner acting as a snow plough for those that followed.
Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston were second from Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin, giving Toyota an early one-two-three. Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja were fourth, one tenth of a second behind Evans.
Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria tied with Tänak in their M-Sport Ford Puma, a great effort given the Frenchman’s lack of snow experience.
Neuville’s first-on-the-road saw him drop 2.3 seconds, ending sixth with Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm a surprised – and surprising – seventh. The Finn was the last of the Rally1 runners and had the best of the conditions and after setting the pace in Thursday’s shakedown stage, it was rather strange.
Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka were eighth in the second Puma Rally 1 and only 0.4 seconds up on the leading WRC2 team.
Oliver Solberg/Elliot Edmonson, the outright WRC2 favourites and the winners last year, set a blistering time in their Toksport-run Skoda Fabia RS. His closest challenger, Roope Korhonen/Anssi Viinikka (Toyota Yaris WRC2) were three seconds behind followed by Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen, 4.1 seconds off the pace in their Yaris.
Friday’s seven stages total 108km of racing.
