Rally Sweden 2025, Saturday's Report

02/15/2025 07:52 PM

Day two dawned with stunning snow-covered stages just like Friday and a beautiful blue sky. There had been some snow fall overnight and this left the stages with some loose snow for the early crews to sweep. Jourdan would open the road throughout the day.

First up then was SS9 Vännäs 1 – 15.65 km and it was a 1-2-3 for Toyota as Kalle, Takamoto and Elfyn took the top positions respectively. Takamoto closed the gap to his teammate Elfyn to just one tenth of a second whilst Ott remained third overall. Further back Sami was on the move and passed Josh for eighth overall.

Into SS10 Sarjöliden 1 – 14.23 km and Elfyn set the pace in this one setting the fastest time from Kalle and Adrien. Takamoto set the same time as Adrien, seeing Elfyn increase his lead over him to two seconds. There was an overshoot at a junction for Josh and the gap to Sami who was ahead of him grew to almost six seconds.

The final stage of the morning loop, SS11 Kolksele 1 – 16.06 km saw Thierry take a stage win at last. Kalle and Sami were second and third fastest behind the Belgian whose pace had brought him into third overall. Kalle was also on the move passing Adrien for fifth overall. The Frenchman had to stop after he'd started the stage when he realised that he'd not done up his helmet strap and he dropped from fourth to sixth.

After the service break came SS12 Vännäs 2 – 15.65 km and Adrien came back from the set back on the previous stage to set the fastest time from Ott and Elfyn. The Welshman increased his lead over his teammate to six seconds as well after Takamoto set the sixth best time after a brief off road moment. Sami also had a small moment after an overshoot.

Next up was SS13 Sarjöliden 2 – 14.23 km and Elfyn was fastest from Thierry and Kalle in this one increasing his lead over Takamoto to 8.6. Thierry also moved back into third overall pushing Ott down to fourth. Unfortunately, we lost Adrien in this one as he clipped a snowbank which took his i20 and pulled the car into it which ended up facing the opposite direction and completely beached. He and Alex tried to dig the car out, but this didn't work, and they were forced to retire for the rest of the day.

Onto the penultimate stage then, SS14 Kolksele 2 – 16.06 km and Thierry was fastest from Takamoto and Ott. Elfyn was fourth and maintained a six second lead over his Japanese teammate. The Welshman had a moment but managed to survive it and complete the stage. It was close though. There were also moments for Josh and Martins as they suffered a stall and spin in the stage.

The final stage then, SS15 Umeå Sprint 3 – 5.16 km and whilst it was a god one for the top three of Thierry, Takamoto and Ott, Elfyn had a moment under braking and a brief stall. He lost a few seconds and now Takamoto was only three seconds and Thierry a little over six seconds from him.

Let's take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.

Classification after Saturday

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Elfyn Evans

"Overall, today has been pretty good. It's a close fight and I think there have been ups and downs for almost everybody at some point. There were just a couple of small mistakes in the last two stages which were quite costly: when the times are so tight there's not much margin for error. On the penultimate stage I just lost the line ever so slightly, and in the last one the rear stepped out under braking, I locked the wheels and stalled. We need to try and avoid such mistakes tomorrow. Everything is to play for, and it should be an exciting day."

Kalle Rovanperä

"Today was definitely much better than yesterday. We did a lot of work with the setup last night, and it felt pretty good on the first stage this morning which was narrow and technical. There we could feel comfortable and have some pace. When the stages are wider with long and fast corners, I'm still looking for some more precision. For tomorrow we'll try to put everything we have learned this weekend together and aim to score some good points."

Takamoto Katsuta

"It has been a challenging day but quite a strong day I think. This morning I was not completely happy with the feeling in the car and this afternoon I was struggling a bit with the conditions. I had an overshoot and had to reverse, but I think we managed to gain some time back afterwards. The gap is not big in front or behind, but it feels good for me to be in this position. Tomorrow will be interesting, but I will just try to continue what I've been doing the whole weekend and see what happens."

Sami Pajari

"It has been quite a solid day today. The morning especially was really nice and enjoyable for us. There were some stages where I felt I left some margin and some room to improve but still the times were OK. This afternoon there were some trickier conditions on the second pass, and I felt I was struggling a bit more there. But overall, it has been a good clean day full of learning in different conditions, so there are a lot of good things to take into tomorrow."

Hyundai Motorsport

Thierry Neuville

"The target of the day was to get closer to the lead and finally we achieved that. I've been satisfied with our performance; step by step we've been able to increase the speed. We're still fighting a bit with mid-stage sections, but overall, I think we went in the right direction, and we know now what to do. There are extra points to take tomorrow, so in such a close battle everyone will be flat out. Let's cross our fingers that everything will go our way tomorrow, and we will see."

Ott Tänak

"This morning I had a better feeling chassis-wise, and it only improved from there. The first stage was positive, but then after this we lost some speed. The rest of the day we had to maximise everything we could. Some stages were bad, some were good, but that's just the way it's been. I think with the pace we've had this afternoon, a fight for the win tomorrow doesn't look too promising. When it's icy, the new tyres are consistent and tyre wear is not too bad, but we will see what the conditions are like tomorrow."

Adrien Fourmaux

"Today was not my day definitely, on SS11 I had to stop to tighten my helmet and lost more than 20 seconds, and then this afternoon I get trapped in a really soft snowbank. The car was in the snowbank on the outside and it pushed the front into it after that, so for 60 metres we were forced along it. At some point it caught the front and then we got stuck in the really fresh snow; it was really deep and there were no spectators. A difficult day, but I just want to refocus on tomorrow and try to get some points for the championship where we can."

Oliver Solberg

"It's been a good day today, the conditions were a little bit different from yesterday, but the focus for me and Elliott has been to stay on the road, stay sensible and stay out of trouble.

"Like yesterday, there were plenty of fans out there and, once again, I'll say thank you for waving the flags – it's an incredible feeling to drive at home like this.

"So far, so good. We need to stay like this for one more day and tomorrow is not going to be easy – it's a proper day with the two long stages."

Sunday

The final day will see the crews tackle 67km's over three stages, with two runs of a 29km stage before the final stage to decide the winner, podium positions and points for the championship.