Briton Elfyn Evans (Toyota) won his first rally in Sweden on Sunday, the second round of the WRC World Championship, which was shortened considerably due to weather conditions, taking over the controls of the World Drivers' Championship.
Dominant from start to finish, the Welshman finished 12 sec and 7/10 ahead of the Estonian Ott Tänak (Hyundai), reigning world champion and winner of the 2019 edition, and more than 20 seconds behind his teammate at Toyota, the Finnish Kalle Rovanperä, third. Evans recovers the place of provisional leader at the World Championship to Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), victorious at the Monte-Carlo rally at the end of January.
The two men each have 42 points but the Belgian, sixth at the end of the race, has one podium less than his competitor, third in Monte-Carlo. On Scandinavian lands, the 31-year-old driver also claimed the second victory of his career after his success in Great Britain in 2017, while driving a Ford M-Sport. Six-time world champion Sébastien Ogier of France (Toyota) finished in fourth place after an amputated round due to the particularly mild weather for the season.
Due to the lack of snow and ice on the course, the Rally of Sweden, the only event to be contested in 100% winter conditions, was cut in half and did not start until Friday morning. After the elimination of nine special stages out of 19 before the start of the competition, the organizers canceled one of the last two special stages, the ES17, scheduled for the last day of the race on Sunday. Only the Power Stage (ES18), won by Kalle Rovanperä and offering bonus points in the driver classification, was kept on the program.
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