Evans leads thrilling Toyota Gazoo Racing one-two finish on Rally Sweden
Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta delivered a thrilling finish and another maximum score for Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team with a one-two result on a spectacular Rally Sweden yesterday (16 February).
The FIA World Rally Championship’s only pure winter event on snow and ice was one of the most exciting for many years. Evans and co-driver Scott Martin did an excellent job to lead after opening the road on Friday, heading a five-way battle for victory covered by less than 10 seconds. After a high-paced battle through Saturday, Evans entered Sunday’s final leg leading Katsuta by just three seconds, with Thierry Neuville only a further 3.3s back in third place.
Katsuta and his co-driver Aaron Johnston drove a superb rally and were in contention for their first WRC victory. They were quickest out of the traps on the final morning to win the first pass of the 29.35-kilometre Västervik stage and take the lead from Evans and Martin by 4.5s. Evans responded emphatically on the second pass of the stage, going 6.7s faster than anyone to reclaim the lead.
Defending an advantage of 3.7s into the rally-ending Power Stage, Evans secured victory in style as he edged Katsuta to the best time by just 0.2s and to top the Super Sunday classification by 0.8s. His overall winning margin of 3.8s is the narrowest in Rally Sweden history.
The victory is a 10th WRC triumph for Evans and his second in Sweden, five years to the day since he and Martin scored their first win for TGR-WRT on the same event. Taking a maximum score of 35 points, Evans moves into a 28-point lead in the drivers’ championship over Rallye Monte-Carlo winner Sébastien Ogier, who did not include Sweden in his partial programme of rallies for TGR-WRT.
Following its 95th WRC win, Toyota has moved into second place in the list of the championship’s most successful manufacturers. With two one-two finishes and maximum points from the first two rounds, TGR-WRT lead the manufacturers’ standings by 48 points.
Kalle Rovanperä is up to third place in the drivers’ championship after he and Jonne Halttunen finished fifth overall in Sweden, plus fourth in the Power Stage and fifth on Super Sunday. Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen took seventh overall in their TGR-WRT2 entry.
In WRC2, Swedish star Oliver Solberg started his title bid with a home victory in ninth overall. Driving for the Printsport team, Solberg led a one-two finish for the GR Yaris Rally2 car ahead of Finland’s Roope Korhonen of Rautio Motorsport.
Team quotes
Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman): “The top five within a 25-second gap, and there are three GR Yaris Rally1 cars among them. The top two are Elfyn and Takamoto, with only a three-second difference between them. Following them were three previous WRC champions including Kalle. This year’s Rally Sweden was exhilarating as we started the morning of the final day with this situation.
“Congratulations to Elfyn and Scott for winning the rally. They have faced disappointing results in Sweden over the past few years, so it’s great that they finally won there again. Congratulations also to Takamoto and Aaron for finishing in second place. I assume Taka still has some frustration, but I hope this rally helped change something within him. Next up is the Safari Rally, and I’m counting on him to showcase his spirit of ‘returning to the finish line no matter what’.
“Both Elfyn and Takamoto delivered fantastic performances during the Power Stage. It was an amazing drive from both. Thank you for the perfect one-two finish. I also thank everyone in the team for building cars that allowed the drivers to compete comfortably until the end!
For the next rounds, Jari-Matti will step away to temporarily return to driving in the FIA European Historic Rally Championship that starts next month, and I look forward to seeing his stories with the Celica. Juha Kankkunen will take over in his role as Deputy Team Principal, and his first event is one he has a strong connection with, having won it three times. I’m confident that Juha will take good care of the team and I’m also sure that the team will also support him.”
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal): “This was an incredibly close Rally Sweden and it’s been a nerve-wracking final day for us, watching two of our drivers fighting for the win. I’m proud of both Elfyn and Takamoto for the way they fought, and for how mentally strong they have been. We saw that from Elfyn in the way he responded after losing the lead. Taka has shown that he is ready to win and able to maintain a great performance under pressure without making mistakes. There were only a few seconds between the top drivers for the whole rally, and to fight like this for three days is remarkable. For our team to have scored the maximum 120 points from the first two rallies, we could not have asked for a better start to the season.”
Elfyn Evans (driver car 33): “It’s been an amazing weekend. We led for a lot of the rally but the margins were always tight and it was never really comfortable. This morning I was caught napping in the first stage by Taka, who really made me fight for it. Thankfully we managed to turn it around and unlock good pace on the next stage. I’m very happy with the end result and to have won the Power Stage as well. It’s been a very good start to the season for us and we couldn’t really have dreamed of much better. Usually after a good Rallye Monte-Carlo it’s hard to score well in Sweden but the good conditions gave us a chance and I feel we made the most of it.”
Kalle Rovanperä (driver car 69): “Overall it’s been a difficult weekend for me. We were trying to push hard but we could not find the pace or the performance that we wanted, even on the final day. It’s a big disappointment but this is the only snow rally in the season and now we need to focus on the next rally on gravel with a completely different tyre and work to be stronger there. I’ve been closely following the battle at the front and I’m glad that both drivers could bring home the one-two and the maximum points for the team. Well done to Elfyn who’s done a really good job, and I’m proud of my friend Taka also.”
Takamoto Katsuta (driver car 18): “It’s been a nice fight with Elfyn and with the Hyundai drivers not far behind us as well. It’s been an intense battle for the whole rally and there was some pressure throughout, but I enjoyed it a lot. I’m happy to have done a good job for the team, bring the car to the finish and score some good points. Well done to the team for this result and hats off to Elfyn, who did an amazing drive on the penultimate stage. Next time I will be ready to push more to try and take that victory. I was able to manage the speed through the whole weekend and this is giving me more confidence for the future and a good feeling for Kenya.”
Sami Pajari (driver car 5): “Overall it has been a very enjoyable rally and it’s good to reach the finish without any big mistakes. It’s still quite disappointing what happened on Friday morning when the tyre came off the rim and we lost quite a lot of time, which then maybe gave us not such a good starting position for the next days. Still, I think we had some nice pace and some good moments, including some top-three stage times, and the feeling has been good. It’s been valuable learning and I’m grateful to the team for the support.”
PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, RALLY SWEDEN
1 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 2h33m39.2s
2 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +3.8s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +11.9s
4 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +16.8s
5 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +32.8s
6 Mārtiņš Sesks/Renārs Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +2m09.4s
7 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2m27.0s
8 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +4m08.6s
9 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +8m23.1s
10 Roope Korhonen/Anssi Viinikka (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +9m05.6s
(Results as of 12:30 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 2:
1 Elfyn Evans 61 points
2 Sébastien Ogier 33
3 Kalle Rovanperä 31
4 Thierry Neuville 29
5 Ott Tänak 26
6 Takamoto Katsuta 25
7 Adrien Fourmaux 21
8 Mārtiņš Sesks 8
9 Sami Pajari 6
10 Josh McErlean 6
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 2:
1 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 120 points
2 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 72
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 25
4 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT2 11
What’s next?
The Safari Rally Kenya – the only African round of the WRC – hosts round three on 20-23 March. Since returning to the calendar in 2021, the event has provided gruelling conditions on rough and rocky roads and high speed racing across open plains.
ENDS
