Evans took his 10th WRC win in Sweden after denying teammate Takamoto Katsuta his maiden win in a dramatic final-day face off – finishing ahead of Katsuta by just 3.8 seconds. He led the majority of the rally following Thursday’s action, and remained cool under pressure to bring home maximum points from the overall rally, the Wolf Power Stage and Super Sunday.
“Very good start, very early days [in the championship] but I don’t think you could wish for much better than this” said Evans, in reaction to his victory.
“I made life difficult in the first stage this morning… it focused the mind, got a good run on those last stages and it’s been a good fight” he added.
Evans now leads the championship, as Toyota lock out the top three places, with fellow Toyota driver and rally legend Sébastien Ogier in P2 and two-time world champion Kalle Rovanperä in P3. The Hyundais of defending world champion Thierry Neuville and 2019 world champion Ott Tänak are in P4 and P5, respectively.
While the loss of a potential maiden win will be a tough pill for Katsuta to swallow, it does show that he does have what it takes to become a Rally1 winner.
“It was a very consistent and strong weekend and probably my best performance in my career but, at the same time, I have a very mixed feeling – 50% is happy that I have done the job for the team, but I’m disappointed in myself that I was not able to push in the second-last [stage]”, Katsuta said.
Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak had mixed feelings about the rally. Neuville was optimistic about the evolved i20 N the team brought to Sweden featuring suspension upgrades, he said: “We have done a good rally, there were some ups and downs but we can be pleased with our performance”. Tänak was slightly more reserved about his feelings, saying: “When you come with high hopes and you get a rally like this, it is difficult to swallow.”
The teams and drivers will now turn their focus on the next event, as they face a complete contrast in conditions at the 2025 Safari Rally Kenya from March 20th to 23rd.
