Esapekka Lappi is one step away from his second career victory in the WRC. Now only the power stage separates him from the finish line, therefore a few kilometers before returning to the top step of the podium almost 7 years after the first and last time today.
Even on SS17, the second passage on the 25.50 kilometer Vastervik, the Hyundai Motorsport driver managed his advantage over his rivals: there is no point in taking risks when you have victory within reach and a good advantage as a buffer from use and manage to achieve your purpose.
Behind him, however, the situation is boiling. With the new scoring system there are several drivers who are pushing hard to try to grab the extra spoils guaranteed by the new points distribution method, including all those who have world-class ambitions.
First of all Elfyn Evans. The Welsh Toyota Racing driver knows he has to recover precious points from the world championship leader Thierry Neuville, which is why today he is giving everything to end the day in the lead (we are explicitly talking about the day's ranking, not the overall one) to get the 7 points and join them to the 15 obtained thanks to yesterday's third place.
Thierry Neuville has started to think the same way. The Belgian from Hyundai Motorsport finished fourth yesterday evening, while today he is third. To have a more complete picture of the situation we will have to wait for the Power Stage, a test that will award other valid points for the 2024 world championships. For now, however, it seems that Neuville is holding up well in a weekend that should have penalized him quite a bit. There are points lost on Evans for now, but they aren't that many.
It was Neuville who overtook Ott Tanak in the daily standings, his teammate also tipped to chase the world title. For this reason it will be interesting to understand the Estonian's approach in the Power Stage, while it is practically certain that Neuville will be forced to push to avoid losing more points to Evans.
Behind Neuville, in the general classification there is still Oliver Solberg in fifth place overall and first place in WRC2. The Norwegian is now one step away from class success and a truly important Top 5 for his season and, why not, also for his career. His rivals are far behind him, but the fight for second place is open, with Sami Pajari in second place and followed closely by Georg Linnamae, both on Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
Rally Sweden will be completed by SS18, the 10.08 kilometer Umea 2 which will also serve as the Power Stage. The first car will enter testing at 12.15pm Italian time.
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