Dolgellau driver Elfyn Evans is looking to build on a positive start to the World Rally Championship with a good showing at this weekend’s Rally Sweden.
Elfyn clawed back time following a damaged tyre to claim fourth place in the World Rally Championship opener in Monaco.
The 34-year-old said: “Overall, Rallye Monte-Carlo was a good start to the year even if our result was disappointing with the pace that I think we had.
“Now we head to Sweden and a completely different challenge.
“Even with the snow and ice, it’s still one of the fastest rallies on the calendar and especially since the base moved a bit further north last year; I think the stages are even faster and we will have some new ones on this year’s route that we are yet to discover.
“It’s a rally where it’s almost impossible to have a perfect car all the time, because the grip you have can change a lot within one loop of stages, but we were able to work through various options in our test.”
Elfyn’s Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team will be aiming to continue its strong record of success on the snow and ice of Rally Sweden when round two of the championship takes place from 9-12 February.
Sweden was the scene of TGR-WRT’s first victory in 2017 when Jari-Matti Latvala – now Team Principal – claimed a shock win in only the team’s second event. Since then the team has taken three further wins in the rally’s last three editions, including the first victory for the GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid one year ago in the hands of Kalle Rovanperä.
That result kick-started Rovanperä’s run to his first drivers’ championship, and the Finn will again arrive in Sweden this year effectively leading the race for the title. Last month he completed a one-two finish for TGR-WRT on the season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo behind Sébastien Ogier – who heads the standings but does not include Sweden in his part-season programme.
Takamoto Katsuta therefore steps up to be part of the main three-car line-up for the first time, alongside Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans – who won in Sweden in 2020.
Having often rallied on snow and ice in Finland as part of his training through the TGR WRC Challenge Program, Japanese driver Katsuta also has a strong record in Sweden, taking a breakthrough WRC2 win there in 2018 and finishing fourth overall last year.
TGR-WRT will still have four cars in action in the top category in Sweden, as Italy’s Lorenzo Bertelli becomes the first customer driver to compete in the GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid.
Part of the inaugural WRC season 50 years ago, Rally Sweden is the only true winter round on the calendar.
Last year it moved to a new home in Umeå: the largest city in northern Sweden and closer to the Arctic Circle than Stockholm.
As well as providing a greater guarantee of the extreme conditions the rally is known for, the move also brought even quicker roads.
Special studded tyres bite into the surface to provide impressive grip; helping make this one the fastest rallies of the year with drivers ‘leaning’ their cars on snow banks by the sides of the road to carry more speed through corners.
The rally will begin this evening with a short ‘sprint’ stage in Umeå, which is run again on Friday following two loops of three stages: Brattby and Sarsjöliden to the west were driven on Saturday and Sunday respectively last year, while Botsmark to the north is new.
Saturday’s repeated loop of three stages begins with two new tests: Norrby and Floda, which is the longest stage of the rally at 28.25km.
A double-length version of the Umeå stage rounds out the day, and will also serve as the rally-ending Power Stage on Sunday following two passes of another new test, Västervik.