Sunday, the day of the last stage of the Swedish Rally, started with the 25.50 kilometer Vastervik 1 in which the Toyota GR Rally 1s literally dominated.
Kalle Rovanpera won the race by stopping the clock in 11'19″3, beating teammate Elfyn Evans by 6″3. The 2-time WRC world champion started off strong this morning to try to get as many points as possible after retiring on Friday due to an accident.
The special test and the snowy surface conditions benefited the Japanese cars. The stage ranking is clear: three Yaris Rally1 in the top three positions. Takamoto Katsuta, who restarted after yesterday's accident which put him out of action while he was fighting for the win, set the third fastest time, although 13.6 seconds behind Rovanpera.
The best Hyundai i20 N Rally1 was that of Ott Tanak, 6 tenths behind Katsuta, followed in fifth place by teammate Thierry Neuville. The Korean cars showed traction problems and a tendency to go from understeer to oversteer in most of the direction changes made during the test.
The most important change visible in this morning's special stage, however, was made by Elfyn Evans. The Welshman, second in the special, also managed to climb to second position in the general classification by taking advantage of a rather slow performance by Adrien Fourmaux.
At the finish line of the test the Frenchman from M-Sport declared that he did not want to take risks after having taken the 18 points he took for second place at the end of yesterday's stage. today he will consolidate the podium, i.e. third place, trying to give the British team the first smile after a decent start in Monte-Carlo thanks to his performance.
Esapekka Lappi continues to manage his advantage over his rivals. His special was more than conservative. She was as cautious as possible. 36 “1 lost by Kalle Rovanpera, winner of the test, but his margin over the first of the pursuers in the general classification – now Elfyn Evans – is still close to a minute.
Excellent news regarding Lorenzo Bertelli. The Italian managed to take advantage of a mistake by Lauri Joona and move into the points. Now the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver is tenth, just under half a minute behind Mikko Heikkila who precedes him in ninth place in the general classification.
#WRC #Rally #Sweden #SS16 #Evans #climbs #place
