Since his closest rival Takamoto Katsuta also dropped out of the decision on Saturday, Esapekka Lappi goes into the final day with a cushion
At the Rally Sweden, the second round of the 2024 World Rally Championship (WRC), Hyundai driver Esapekka Lappi is in the lead after 15 of 18 special stages (SS). On Saturday’s stage (SS 9 to 15), another driver joined the long list of those who struggled on the snow-covered tracks
Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota), who started Saturday in second place overall, just three seconds behind Lappi, crashed into one of the track boundaries on the second stage of the day (stage 10). These are made of snow in Sweden. By then, Katsuta had reduced his deficit to less than a second. With the crash, however, the Japanese driver is also out of contention for victory.
After Saturday’s stage, Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport-Ford) is now the first pursuer of leader Lappi. The Frenchman goes into the final day 1:06 minutes behind. Fourmaux has never won a WRC round. Lappi, on the other hand, has done so once before, but that was more than six years ago. The Finn’s only WRC victory to date came at his home rally in the 2017 season, back then for Toyota.
Before Takamoto Katsuta retired from the decision on Saturday morning, there had been a veritable “death of the favorites” in Sweden on Friday. Reigning WRC champion Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota), who is only driving a part-time season this year, crashed while in the lead.
And Ott Tänak (Hyundai) also suffered a disaster in one of the massive snow accumulations. Although they both started again on Saturday, they were hopelessly behind due to the regulations.
Tänak’s Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville, who had won the Monte Carlo Rally at the start of the season, lost a lot of time on Friday due to technical problems. The same applied to Elfyn Evans (Toyota).
In contrast to Rovanperä and Tänak, however, Neuville and Evans can still make a difference in the battle for the Swedish podium. They are in third and fourth place behind Esapekka Lappi and Adrien Fourmaux, with Evans ahead of Neuville
The seven fastest special stage times on Saturday went successively to Tänak, Rovanperä, Fourmaux, Evans, Neuville, Neuville, Neuville. Leader Lappi maintained his lead in the overall rally standings without setting another stage best time. On Friday, when so many others ran into difficulties, the Hyundai driver had won four special stages.
The positive surprise of the Rally Sweden so far is Oliver Solberg. With his Skoda Fabia Rally2, the 22-year-old son of former rally world champion Petter Solberg is not only leading the WRC2 standings. In the overall classification of the rally, the young Solberg is in fifth place with three stages still to go. He was even third after Friday’s stage, but was overtaken by Evans and Neuville on Saturday.
The Rally Sweden comes to an end on Sunday with the last three special stages (a total of 61 special stage kilometers). The Power Stage (SS 18) is the second crossing of the “Umea” stage, which already brought the day to a close on Saturday
