As expected, Esapekka Lappi turned the corner and became the new leader of Rally Sweden. The Finnish driver of Hyundai Motorsport won the Floda 2 by 28.25 kilometers and did better than Takamoto Katsuta by 2.1. This led him to eliminate the three-tenths delay he had up until the previous test and now leads the standings overall with a 1″8 margin.
Lappi took very good advantage of a small – but significant in terms of time – slip by Katsuta in the last sector to open the margin necessary for the change of leadership. Having started very well in the first half of the test, Esapekka progressively lost all the margin he had until reaching the last sector, where he took advantage of his rival's mistake.
Now the two will compete in today's last test, the short Umea Sprint 2 of just over 5 kilometres, to see who will be the leader of the second event of the 2024 WRC at the end of this second day of competition.
Behind the two contenders for success there is the real, big surprise of the day: Oliver Solberg. The Norwegian from the TokSport team is leader in WRC2 and even third in the overall general classification with his Skoda Fabia RS Rally2.
The third time achieved on SS7 was enough to put him ahead of the good Adrien Fourmaux and reach the final stage with the possibility of resting in the podium area. A surreal day for several WRC protagonists, which will remain among the most surprising of the last 10 years.
Adrien Fourmaux is keeping the name of Ford and M-Sport very high with a competitive and careful race, without mistakes. Fourth place, 7″8 from the podium, is a good calling card after the equally valid Rallye Monte-Carlo: the transalpine is repaying the trust that Richard Millener's team has placed in him, even if he will also have to finish this event to complete a start to the season above expectations.
Like Solberg, Georg Linnamae is also among the great protagonists of the day. The Estonian rose to fifth place in the general classification at the wheel of the first Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, even surpassing Elfyn Evans. The Welshman, now forced to start first on the special after the engine failure that slowed Neuville at the start of the afternoon lap, is in a grip crisis and is paying dearly in terms of time.
Now Evans is followed by another Toyota Yaris GR, but it is the Rally2 of Sami Pajari, who climbed seventh ahead of the twin cars of Mikko Heikkila and Roope Korhonen, also with a Taris Rally2. Lauri Joona completes the overall Top 10, with Thierry Neuville making up for it and is now 11th after recovering 3 positions.
Nikolay Gryazin lost some time in qualifying due to being stuck in a snowbank, while Lorenzo Bertelli continued his climb to 15th place.
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