Thierry Neuville in the lead in Sweden.
The French Sébastien Ogier, reigning world champion, and Sébastien Loeb, winner of the Monte Carlo rally in January, do not participate in this contested event on the snowy and icy roads of northern Sweden.
The fight is very close, the Belgian only ahead of Rovanperä by 4''3 seconds with the Briton Elfyn Evans (Toyota) in ambush at 7''4 seconds.
The "returning" Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) is 4th at 8''8 seconds, the Finn showing that he has not lost any of his velocity even though he has not played a full season in the WRC since 2019. Other victim of the day, the Irishman Craig Breen who remained perched on a snow bank during the 2nd special and was forced to retire.
Tanäk had to give up on a mechanical failure, his Hyundai experiencing an anomaly on the hybrid system.
He was unable to take the start of the 6th special when he had just won the 5th and was at that time in second place in the rally behind Evans.
The fact that neither Loeb nor Ogier are present in Sweden paves the way for other drivers to try to take the lead in the world championship.
Neuville, who finished on the second step of the podium five times, hopes to finally wear the crown this year.
Its good performance on Friday marks the return to form of the Hyundais, the South Korean cars having experienced many setbacks in Monte Carlo.
“The car runs perfectly.
We only had to make a few adjustments and I was able to drive really fast.
It worked pretty well."
The route laid out around the town of Umeaa, 600 kilometers north of Stockholm, is however completely new and offers great difficulties to the pilots who have to negotiate between walls of snow and icy roads.
An exercise which the young Rovanperä did well, who, like all Nordic pilots, learned to drive in such conditions.
He won two specials, the last of which, a sprint arriving in a snow-covered stadium in Umeaa, when he had to open the road all day due to his 3rd place in the provisional classification of the world championship behind Loeb and Ogier who had finished in that order at Monte Carlo.
Frenchman Adrien Fourmeaux (MSport-Ford) negotiated his debut on the icy roads well and is in 7th place, however more than 1'30'' behind Neuville,
Classification of Rally Sweden at the end of the 1st day:
1. Thierry Neuville - Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL / Hyundai) 1h02'31''2
2. Kalle Rovanperä - Jonne Halttunen (FIN / Toyota) at 4''3
3 Elfyn Evans - Scott Martin (GBR/Toyota) at 7''4
4. Esapekka Lappi - Janne Ferm (FIN/Toyota) at 8''8
5. Olivier Solberg - Elliot Edmondson (NOR/GBR) at 28''1
6. Takamoto Katsuta - Aaron Johnston (JPN-IRL/Toyota) at 1'18''9
7. Adrien Fourmeaux - Alexandre Coria (FRA - MSport-Ford) at 1'32''9
8. Gus Greensmith - Jonas Andersson ( GBR/SWE) at 1'48''1
9. Andreas Mikkelsen - Torstein Eriksen (NOR/Skoda) at 3'08''9 (1st WRC2)
10.Ole Christian Veiby - Stig Runne Skjaermoen (NOR/Volkswagen WRC2) at 3'13''0