The Swedish Rally, second appointment of the WRC, is of two. The game is between Kalle Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans. And this is saying a lot, since the offensive of one and the resistance of the other, choose who each action corresponds to, could end in the last stretch, also for both. In the meantime, Thierry Nueville has sneaked onto the podium to the misfortune of Esapekka Lappi and Takamoto Katsuta has assaulted the ‘top 5’ against an Oliver Solberg in free fall because his Hyundai has played a trick on him.
The afternoon loop started with the planned script and ended with a few improvised lines. And since it is fair to start at the beginning, Elfyn Evans gave the first blow on the table. Scratch for the Welshman in SS12, repeating the best time of the morning. Evans cut his deficit to Rovanperä by 3.6 seconds on the second run through ‘Brattby’, but all remained the same in qualifying. However, the trail of seconds that Oliver Solberg left behind seemed more like a dam break than a simple water leak.
In SS14, because the reindeer did not want the Swedish Rally to have section 13, turn of the tables. Scratch by Kalle Rovanperä to return the augmented blow to Elfyn Evans. With everything, the main change was on the last step of the podium, in the hands of Thierry Neuville after leaving Esapekka Lappi behind. Despite having better feelings, Takamoto Katsuta could not with the Swedish Oliver Solberg in his particular duel for fifth place, which seemed to postpone any fight to Sunday’s day.
And it is that the last section of the day, due to its super special format, seemed to wear sneakers to enter the ‘Cambio’ nightclub. However, the section became VIP. So much so that Kalle Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans had two touches against the snowbanks, with the Welshman even hitting one of the light poles. For its part, Oliver Solberg started out of order, with a car breakdown. The Swede lost 2 minutes and 40 seconds just because of the penalty, plus a minute and a half because of his lack of rhythm.
Loading tweet…
1497643027506122758
With all these shocks, Kalle Rovanperä sleeps as leader of the Swedish Rally after two days, with an advantage of 8.3 seconds over Elfyn Evans. Far from both, because the Swedish Rally already seems to be a matter of two in a dance in which the music is provided by Toyota, Thierry Neuville appears. The Belgian is 21.7 seconds behind the leader and not far behind an Esapekka Lappi who can still close the triplet for the Japanese brand. Takamoto Katsuta completes the ‘top 5’, while Gus Greensmith has found an unexpected sixth place due to Solberg’s problems.
Behind both is Andreas Mikkelsen, close, but focused on other matters. And it is that the Norwegian has enough to keep controlled the attacks of his compatriot Ole Christian Veiby in his duel, not so much for the eighth position as for the WRC2 leadership. The difference between the two is 10.9 seconds, while the Russian Nikolay Gryazin is in third place. In another battle Lauri Joona is the leader of Schrödinger, since he is a leader and at the same time he is not. He rules in WRC3, but in WRC3 Junior he has been overtaken by Jon Armstrong.
Classification after SS15 of the 69th Rally Sweden
Rally Sweden wraps up this Sunday (07:00 a.m.) with the dispute of the four sections of the third and final stage of the event. Pilots and co-pilots will dispute 56.84 kilometers against the clock.
Photos: Toyota Gazoo Racing