Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi stayed out of the snow banks on a challenging and drama-filled opening leg of WRC Rally Sweden to lead by a slender 3.2s at Friday’s overnight halt.
Lappi (above), making his first 2024 start in the third factory Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid, refocused after a lackluster run through Thursday evening’s short opening stage. Reveling in the super-fast stages of the FIA World Rally Championship’s only true snow and ice event, the Finn completed Friday morning’s loop of three stages trailing Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Takamoto Katsuta by 11.4s.
But Lappi wasted no time in his efforts to catch the first-placed GR Yaris Rally1 during the afternoon loop by taking 6.1s out of Katsuta’s lead on special stage 5 — a rerun of the #42 Brattby test — to close the gap to just 5.3s.
With the snowfall intensifying, Lappi outpaced Katsuta again on the afternoon’s second stage, this time by 5.0s, and snatched the rally lead following his table-topping run through the next test, the 17.55-mile Floda 2 stage.
“For sure we need to take the confidence from today and start to concentrate for the rest of the rally,” Lappi said after winning Friday’s short closing stage, Umea Sprint 2. “I used the road position advantage clearly in the afternoon. OK, for sure in the morning as well, but I was not too slow against [Toyota’s reigning WRC champ] Kalle [Rovanpera] in the beginning, so I’m fairly satisfied with that.”
Behind the charging Katsuta, Adrien Fourmaux was on course to complete leg one on the provisional podium for M-Sport Ford on the back of a fine drive. But the Ford Puma Rally1-driving Frenchman was powerless to prevent WRC2 leader Oliver Solberg moving ahead in the afternoon snow, despite the power deficit the Swede faced in his Rally2-spec Skoda Fabia.
“Third place in a Rally2 [car] is incredible and in my home rally it’s a bit of a dream and I’m very happy,” Solberg said of his stunning performance. “But the main goal is WRC2 and we are leading that with quite a lot, so I’m happy with the day.”
While the heavy snow created a picture-perfect backdrop to the WRC’s second round of the season, it made the task for the drivers — particularly those running at the head of the field who played unwitting snow plows for the following cars – even harder.
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, the WRC points leader after winning last month’s Monte Carlo Rally opener, was 40.5s off the pace in fifth position, two places behind Elfyn Evans’ GR Yaris, following the morning loop, having not only struggled for grip opening the road but for visibility, too, in the early morning fog.
Normally a fuel pressure issue would be the stuff of nightmares for a rally driver, but after completing the snow-heavy special stage 5 some 1m15.5s behind then-leader Katsuta, the engine fault Neuville detected prior to SS6 provided much needed, albeit unusual, respite for the Belgian, as he started the stage out of order behind Evans.
Although Neuville was a mere 3.7s quicker than Evans on SS6, he was more than 20s faster than the Toyota driver on SS7 after Evans charged a snowbank and was further delayed by a misting windshield.
“I guess the spirit of competition has gone out of the window,” said a disgruntled Evans. “The difference between being first and second on the road is huge. I’m not really sure what’s been going on this afternoon. I can’t even see from here to the sign in front of me, and we’re going so fast. It’s a bit bonkers, but we’re [still] here.”
“The engine was not running so we had to check it,” Neuville explained of his scare prior to SS6. “Elfyn was at the refuel earlier when our car didn’t fire up, so he should know [that’s true]. In the stage it’s not a problem. I could have gone a little bit faster at the end [of SS7], but it’s very easy to go off.”
Neuville’s earlier delay, which incurred a 40s penalty, means he’s outside the overall top 10 at the overnight halt, with Evans in fifth behind Fourmaux’s Puma.
Entries from WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, complete the rest of the overall top 10. Georg Linnamae, who sensationally claimed his maiden outright WRC stage win on SS5, is sixth in Toyota’s new-for-2024 GR Yaris Rally2, with rivals Sami Pajari, Roope Korhonen, Mikko Heikkila, and Lauri Joona holding sixth to 10th.
Reigning world champ Rovanpera, who’s elected to run only a partial WRC campaign in 2024, made his first start of the season for Toyota Gazoo Racing and bossed the opening stages. But a hard hit on one of the event’s defining snowbanks in the morning’s final stage saw his GR Yaris suffer serious rear-end damage, taking the 23-year-old Finn out of contention.
Ott Tanak won last year’s Rally Sweden with M-Sport Ford, but the Estonian’s return to Hyundai for 2024 saw him spin off, hit a snow bank and extensively damage the front end of his i20 N Rally1 while holding third. He, too, is out of contention for any decent points haul.
The weather is set to improve a little for Saturday’s second leg. Two passes through the Vannas, Sarsjoliden and Bygdsiljum stages provide the bulk of the mileage. The day ends with a first run through the 6.26-mile Umea test, the venue for Sunday’s bonus points-paying and rally-closing Wolf Power Stage.
WRC Rally Sweden, positions after Leg One, SS8
1 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 58m18.8s
2 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +3.2s
3 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 leader) +1m20.7s
4 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m26.3s
5 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m50.0s
6 Georg Linnamae/James Morgan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +1m50.1s
7 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +2m05.8s
8 Roope Korhonen/Anssi Viinikka (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +2m08.6s
9 Mikko Heikkila/Kristian Temonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +2m19.0s
10 Lauri Joona/Janni Hussi (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +2m45.7s
11 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m46.0s
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