Duel Rovanpera – Evans at the top of the Sweden Rally

The second leg of this year’s second round of the WRC in Sweden again included heavy snowfall and high roadside snow on its six special routes – which would have been eight had it not been canceled two days ago due to the relocation of a respectable reindeer population to the area. .

At dawn, Thierry Neville, Rovanpera, Evans and Esapeka Lapi were all in 8.8s, but after today’s first special (ED8) it was down to 3.2s. Only this time Neville lost the lead due to struggling with traction from the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 and Rovanpera took the lead despite it being Evans who won the special.

With victory in the next special, the young Finn increased his difference with Wales to 4.0 and then 4.8 seconds ahead of the Meridian Service. Evans started his counterattack by risking big in the afternoon round of three equal specials – and winning the first reduced the difference with Rovanpera to 1.2”.

In the final two night EDs, however, the Finn displayed all his apparent talent and with two riding considerations – notably on the penultimate day – he took 4.5” and 2.6” from Evans respectively and spent the night with a lead of 8.3 seconds. Indeed, Evans got lucky on the last corner of the last special when he hit the snow wall and got stuck in the snow – but in the meantime he had managed to cross the finish line.

For yesterday’s champion Thierry Neville, the second leg was full of bad luck and problems. In the morning he struggled to find traction and in the second ED of the day he made a time-wasting mistake – missing an intersection and doing a four-a-ke. He then encountered a mechanical problem as Hyundai’s hybrid system slowed him down and he couldn’t keep up.

It was something that cost the Belgian about 11 seconds and dropped him to 4th overall, behind Toyota 1-2-3 with Rovanpera, Evans and Esapeka Lapi. “the Toyota “It’s very fast today and I couldn’t find the speed to be honest but we’re still here and we’re trying.”said Neville in the service park.

And he proved it in the afternoon when he picked up his pace and – despite having another potentially time-wasting moment of contact with the snow wall – recaptured 3rd place from Lapi, who leads the Yaris Rally1 in races not given by Sebastian Ozier – these are most of the season. However, trailing 21.7” from the lead, Neville has no major special wins.

On the contrary, Lapi fell off the podium in the afternoon, 4.2” behind by Neville and 25.9” now by Rovanpera. Oliver Solmberg sits lonely in 5th without threatening or being threatened as he admitted he started very cautiously in the morning, had a problem with the gearbox – although he solved it in the easy route – and not himself had absolute confidence in pushing the Hyundai i20 N.

That dropped the young Swede to 7th, behind Takamoto Katsuta on the factory Yaris Rally1 and M-Sport Ford’s Gus Greensmith. Kubria’s teammate Adrien Furmo dropped to 15th with some issues on the Puma Rally1.

Craig Brin returned in the same car today after yesterday’s abandonment – and even won the third special of the day. However, he left again in the afternoon, this time with a problem in the electrical system of the new Puma. Along with the Irishman, Ott Tanak returned with the Hyundai i20 WRC, who lost victory in the first ED by a tenth.

SWEDISH RALLY 2022 – DAY 2

1. Rovanpera (Toyota) 1:45:26.7

2. Evans (Toyota) +8.3

3. Neville (Hyundai) +21.7

4. Lapi (Toyota) +25.9

5.Toyota +1: 44.8

6. Greensmith (Ford M-Sport) +2: 48.1

7. Solmberg (Hyundai) +5: 19.9

8. Mikkelsen (Skoda/WRC2) +5:33.5

photo credit

1 – Toyota Gazoo Race Media

2 – Toyota Gazoo racing media

3 – Red Bull Content Pool