The Rally of Sweden started this Thursday with the Umeå super-special night stage and Kalle Rovanperä’s victory. It is the second round of the World Rally Championship (WRC).
The Toyota driver, who is making his first appearance in a part-time program, showed the skills of a two-time world champion and was the fastest in the 5.16km stage. He surpassed his teammate Takamoto Katsuta by 1.4s, followed by Elfyn Evans who was exactly two seconds slower.
The top five was completed by Ott Tänak (Hyundai) and Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport Ford) who set equal times. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), who arrives in Sweden leading the championship after his triumph in Monte Carlo, was sixth and spent 2.7s more than Rovanperä.
Competing at home, Oliver Solberg (Skoda) made a strong start in the WRC2, beating Roope Korhonen (Toyota) by three seconds – who in turn surpassed Sami Pajari (Toyota) and Fabrizio Zaldivar (Skoda) by 1.1s in the WRC2 Challenger standings. Raúl Hernández made a strong start in the Junior WRC by surpassing Gill Taylor by 2.3s, being the second in the WRC3, 1.9s behind Jan Černý.
Top ten overall after SS 1:
