Kalle Rovanpera celebrates his return to the WRC after missing the Rallye Monte-Carlo in the best way possible, that is by winning the first special stage of the Swedish Rally, the second round of the 2024 World Rally Championship.
The reigning world champion achieved the best time in the 5.16 kilometer SS1 Umea Sprint 1, stopping the clock in 3'18″3. This means that the 23-year-old Finn of Toyota Gazoo Racing is the first leader of the only event of the WRC season held on snow.
Toyota can smile for other reasons too. In addition to the best time and the leadership achieved by Rovanpera, he can boast the hat-trick achieved thanks to the second and third place achieved respectively by Takamoto Katsuta and Elfyn Evans.
The Japanese did worse than Rovanpera by 1.4 seconds, while Evans – Toyota's main title candidate – stopped just 2 seconds behind the 2-time world champion who will race with a part-time WRC program this year.
The first Hyundai i20 N Rally1 is that of Ott Tanak, fourth, but just 1 tenth off the third step of the podium. The Estonian is, together with Lappi, the driver on whom the Korean manufacturer will try to bet to win the second event after having secured the Rallye Monte-Carlo at the end of January.
Same time for Adrien Fourmaux, who started well with the best Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid of the M-Sport team. The Frenchman had already given excellent signals during the Shakedown and this first test seems to confirm his good form.
Outside the Top 5 we find the other two Hyundai i20 N Rally1. If it may be understandable for Thierry Neuville, considering that today like everything tomorrow he will have to open all the special stages due to his position in the World Championship (he is leader), it is less so for Esapekka Lappi, seventh and 4″6 behind.
The Finn put only two of the 9 Rally1 cars behind him, namely Gregoire Munster's Ford Puma and Lorenzo Bertelli's Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. The Dutchman was eighth, while the Italian rider suffered a delay of more than 15 seconds from Rovanpera.
In WRC2, Oliver Solberg made an excellent start, best in the category with a time of 3'27″1, just 4 tenths from the time of Munster who races with a Rally1. The Norwegian, at the wheel of the first Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, preceded the Nikolay Gryazin's official Citroen C3 Rally2 by 3″4 and Sami Pajari's Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 by 4″1.
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