Toyota has two wins out of two. Kalla Rovanpera triumphed at the Rally of Sweden thanks to a perfect Saturday afternoon and careful management of her lead on Sunday. For the young Finn this is the third success in the WRC after those achieved in Estonia and at the Acropolis last year.
Rovanpera, good at resisting on Friday, left no chance for his opponents on the second day of competition, making the most of his skills on the snow (together with those of the Yaris). After the retirement of Tanak – one of his most serious rivals this weekend – Rovanpera got the green light and dominated, following the script already seen in Estonia last year.
Thanks to this victory Rovanpera further strengthens its first position in the Drivers’ World Championship after two events, finding itself in the same situation as last year. Already in 2021 he had arrived at the Rally of Croatia as a leader, but without having won a single rally. This time he will arrive with a victory already in his pocket, which confirms how much good he has done in recent years and how much he has grown.
Behind him the most exciting duel of the weekend took place, also because it only ended at the end of the Power Stage. We are talking about the fight between Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi for the second place overall in the event, which saw the Belgian get the better of the Finn on a tightrope.
In this way Neuville becomes the first of Rovanpera’s pursuers in the Drivers’ World Championship, but in Hyundai the problems continue. Sure, compared to Monte-Carlo, in Sweden things have gone better from a performance point of view, but the i20 N Rally1 still seems to be lagging behind the Yaris. It is no coincidence that in the first 4 positions of the overall standings there are 3 Japanese cars against only the Korean from Neuville.
For Hyundai, the weekend wasn’t just good news. Ott Tanak was forced to retire due to a failure in the hybrid system supplied by Compact Dynamics, while Oliver Solberg had several problems on Saturday that affected his result. The home rider had a good race, but sixth place does not fully reflect the potential he has shown over the course of this weekend.
Esapekka Lappi’s return to the WRC was really good. Immediately on the podium in the race that saw him make his debut at the wheel of the GR Yaris Rally1. This weekend the Finn took over from Sébastien Ogier and took home very heavy points for the Constructors’ World Championship, where Toyota already has an important advantage over its rivals.
To seal an excellent weekend, here is Takamoto Katsuta’s fourth place. The Japanese is back to scoring heavy points and bringing home a positive result after a disappointing second half of 2021 and far from the glories of the first. The fourth place was also facilitated by the retirements of Tanak first and then Evans, but the Japanese had the merit of making little mistakes.
The negative note of the Toyota Racing weekend is linked to the retirement of Elfyn Evans. The Welshman, while in second place, was forced to retire during the first Sunday special stage due to an accident. The former M-Sport standard bearer ended up hitting a snowdrift on the side of the road after losing control of his car, damaging the radiator. This is why he was unable to leave. For him a bewitched start to the season, although Toyota is showing that it has the best car in these first two seasonal outings.
Bad weekend for M-Sport. Gus Greensmith was the only driver to close the race and he did it in fifth place, while the other two Puma did not see the finish line. Craig Breen retired on Friday due to an accident in the early morning tests, while Adrien Fourmaux was forced to retire during the transfer from the Service Park to the first special test on Sunday, perhaps due to the after-effects of the technical problem that occurred yesterday evening.
Andreas Mikkelsen, Eriksen Torstein, Toksport WRT Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
As for WRC2, Andreas Mikkelsen managed to take home a mortgaged race only in the penultimate special. Ole Christian Veiby, while fighting with his fellow Skoda compatriot, made a mistake in the penultimate special while he was intent on giving everything to recover the 4 “that separated him from the first place in his class.
Veiby lost control of his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 and spun. This caused him to lose nearly 20 seconds and a chance to win the event close to home. Nikolay Gryazin, third in class until then, retired in the same special. Arriving at a left-hand corner, the Russian lost grip and slipped out of it, getting stuck in a snowdrift. Jari Huttunen took advantage of this and completed the podium in third place.
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