At the 2024 Rally Sweden it's a fight between domestiques. Esapekka Lappi closed the first stage of the second event of the new WRC season in the lead after taking the reins of the general classification in SS7 and strengthening it in the last of the day, the short SS8 Umea Sprint 2 in which he signed another scratch.
Thanks to this stage success, Lappi brought his lead to 3″2, sublimating a chase that had lasted all day and materialized on SS7 after an excellent test, the longest of the day, in which he took advantage of a mistake by Katsuta to mock him and take command away from him.
Hyundai Motorsport thus finishes ahead of everyone after having already won the Rallye Monte-Carlo, while Toyota Gazoo Racing's hopes of success are all in the hands of Takamoto Katsuta. For the first time in his career, the Japanese has the great opportunity to win an overall WRC event, but also the weight of having a brand like Toyota on his shoulders. Will he be able to endure it and beat Lappi?
Tomorrow, in this regard, will probably be decisive for the purposes of defining the general classification and for the fight for victory. Behind the first two we find, sensationally, a Rally2 car. This is the Skoda Fabia RS of Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson.
Solberg, thanks to an excellent starting position and the weather and surface conditions of the tests, managed to climb the rankings stage after stage, even finishing in third place, with an advantage of 5″6 over Adrien Fourmaux , good at bringing the Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid to fourth place and one step away from the podium.
Elfyn Evans regained the Top 5 right at the wire, overtaking the other surprise of the day Georg Linnamae with the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. The Estonian is sixth, but just 1 tenth behind Evans who is now ahead of him. The other Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 also performed well, with seventh place for Sami Pajari and eighth for Roope Kohronen, without forgetting ninth for Mikko Heikkila.
The Top 10 is closed by Lauri Joona's Skoda Fabia Rally2, which keeps the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 of World Championship leader Thierry Neuville out of the top positions by just 3 tenths. The Belgian slipped out of the points due to an engine problem (fuel pressure) which forced him to take a 40 second penalty for arriving 4 minutes late at the Time Control of the first test of the afternoon.
14th place for Lorenzo Bertelli, who after hitting a snow bank tried to mount a comeback to regain the Top 10. Kalle Rovanpera and Ott Tanak did badly, both retiring due to an accident just one bend away. Both should regularly restart tomorrow.
The first stage of the Rally Sweden ends here. It will resume tomorrow with SS9, the 15.65 kilometer Vännäs 1. The first car will enter testing at 7.45 am Italian time.
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