We came then to the final day of action and three stages to run over 61km’s. Not only was the win on the cards for the crews, there were also extra points for the fastest five through the stages, there of course were points available for the five fastest in the powerstage.
Once again Martins would open the road throughout the day, whilst Elfyn would be last to complete for the top-class car crews. He held a little over thirteen second lead over his Japanese teammate as they fought for victory.
It was an excellent start for the rally leader in SS16 Västervik 1as he set the fastest time from his teammates Takamoto and Oliver. It was also a good stage for Martins who was fifth fastest and only just over one second behind Sami. In the overall standings Adrien remained in fourth now a little under ten seconds behind the returning Esapekka. There was a penalty of a minute placed onto Thierry which was applied at the end of Saturday’s action as the Belgian was penalised for not having his helmet strap done up.
After a visit to the service park for service came SS17 Västervik 2 and Takamoto was fastest from Sami and Elfyn and only seven tenths covered the three of them. There was a change for overall positions as Adrien moved past Esapekka and into fifth overall. Jon was again on the pace going faster than Thierry by a second, yet barring disaster the Belgian would still take seventh given that there was a gap of thirteen seconds between them.
We came then to the final stage, SS18 Umeå 2 the Powerstage. Thierry set the pace in this one and as Elfyn came through he was up on the splits but some of that speed embed away in the final corner towards the flying finish and he finished just one tenth of a second behind giving him second in the stage, whilst Takamoto was third, Oliver fourth and Esapekka fifth.
Let’s take a look at the results and hear from the drivers.
Final Classification – Rally Sweden
|
Super Sunday Classification – Rally Sweden
| 1 | E. Evans | 30:38.5 |
| 2 | T. Katsuta | +1.0 |
| 3 | O. Solberg | +13.2 |
| 4 | S. Pajari | +20.6 |
| 5 | A. Fourmaux | +32.6 |
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Elfyn Evans
“It’s been a great weekend for us and the whole team here in Sweden. The car has been amazing to drive, so a big thanks to the team. It’s an incredible feeling to drive on these fast stages in such nice winter conditions, and when you feel good in the car, it’s always a pleasure. We didn’t have a huge margin coming into the final day, and with so many points available on Sundays, we had to push until the end, but we can be very happy with what we came away with. It’s been a great start to the year, but it’s still early days and we need to keep working hard.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“This is a great result for the team and I’m very happy to be part of it, so a huge thanks to the team for all their hard work. Everything was working well with the car, and I was enjoying it a lot. Big congratulations to Elfyn: he was so strong here again this year and deserves this win. Hopefully next time I have a chance to fight for victory I can push harder. It’s always enjoyable to be in the fight, especially on this kind of high-speed rally when it’s so intense and you’re fighting over tenths of a second. Kenya is another rally that seems to suit me, so I’ll look forward to that.”
Sami Pajari
“This is an amazing result for us and for the team. I want to say a big thank you to the team and to everybody who was giving us such great support after Rallye Monte-Carlo didn’t go to plan. This time we were back on the pace and I’m of course really happy to be back on the podium. I really enjoyed the driving this week with this car in these conditions. It’s nice to be back on the level where I think we should be and where we were at the end of last year. Now we just need to keep pushing for even better results in the future.”
Oliver Solberg
“Of course, I was hoping for more from my home rally, but I think I underestimated how difficult it would be on Friday. My mistake maybe cost a podium and put me on the back foot for the rest of the weekend, but fourth is probably the best I deserve. There’s been a lot of learning in my first proper snow rally with this car and my first time starting first on the road. I tried my best and scored some decent points. The support has been amazing, and I’ve really enjoyed myself in the car. A big thanks to the team: they’ve done a great job and this 1-2-3-4 is a fantastic result.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Adrien Fourmaux
“The rally was beautiful, and the conditions were good, but we are not where we wanted to be in terms of results. We are still taking home some points, and I’m in a better position than last year in terms of the championship, so we just need to make sure we are on the pace in the upcoming events. We have done a good job at the first two events, but we need to keep our heads down and improve to make sure that the next two rallies are going to be fast.”
Rally Sweden 2026, 12-15 February 2026
Photographer: Romain Thuillier
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Esapekka Lappi
“This weekend was probably a bit better than I was expecting in terms of pace against my team-mates, but on the other hand I’m a bit frustrated that we couldn’t be closer to Toyota. I quickly understood that I only need to compare myself to Thierry and Adrien – it’s the only realistic reference that I need, and it went really well throughout the weekend. The conditions on the roads were good and were less of a tyre killer on the second pass, so it was different to what we usually experience here.”
Thierry Neuville
“We need to take all of our courage as a team to work hard and bring us back to where we belong. We are doing a lot, driving a lot, but somehow, we’re not moving in the right direction. I don’t know where the improvements need to be made – I made a lot of changes during the weekend and there was no difference. We basically had limited grip and a lot of understeer. Kenya has never been our strongest event, but we need to go forward and hope for the best.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Jon Armstrong
“I really enjoyed Rally Sweden – it’s good to get this finish under our belt after Monte. We’ve shown some good pace and good splits along the way, and for our first time on this surface in the Rally1 car, it’s been great for us and the team. We’re really happy with our progress and now we can see how we can improve that going forward. But overall, it’s been a good weekend, and we can be really proud of what we’ve achieved as a team here.”
Josh McErlean
“Rally Sweden done – it’s nice to get to the finish after a really difficult Monte-Carlo, one of the toughest events of my career. It’s been a weekend of ups and downs. Friday didn’t start so cleanly, but we’ve showed some good pace throughout and we’ve got some clear things to work on before Kenya. Overall, it’s been positive from a bounce-back perspective. We’ll focus now on Kenya, and the team has done great to get two cars to the finish inside the top ten – all in all, a good job from the team.”
Mārtiņš Sesks
“There were a few unfortunate things happening throughout the weekend, but if you look at the positives, we had our first stage win of the year and we were able to show our pace in some stages – which means we’ve found something good. Jon and Josh also showed some good speed, and overall, as a team I think we can look forward to some more good performances during the summer gravel rallies.”
Romet Jürgenson WRC2
“Sweden this year was one of those difficult events where things just weren’t really clicking for us. We were showing some good performance on Friday afternoon and got a joint-fastest stage time there. But again, on the first loops with more snow and ice, we were generally lacking some performance. On Saturday we ended early after a small crash, but the team did a good job and fixed the car so we could get the confidence back on Sunday. I think we can definitely see the overall package has improved on the Fiesta – it shows that when things are clicking with the set-up, we’re producing some very good stage times, and next time we can come back stronger.”
Mille Johansson WRC2 retired
“Rally Sweden didn’t go our way this year. We faced technical issues during Friday morning which made the car quite low on power. The afternoon wasn’t too bad, but we filled the air filter full of snow on SS5. I was trying hard to find a good rhythm, but unfortunately it ended early for us after an incident that damaged the roll cage. Not the best start of the season, but we will learn and come back stronger.”
Summary
Well, what a great drive by Elfyn and Scott in their Yaris this weekend. They maintained a really good pace and when Takamoto and Aaron passed them at the end of Friday they didn’t seems too worried and then we saw them retake the lead on Saturday’s morning stages, they were never headed again on the overall leaderboard and took five stage wins. They join an elite group as three-time winners of this classic rally.
Takamoto and Aaron also had a fantastic rally taking a well-deserved second place and four stage wins along the way. They held the lead overnight from Friday into Saturday but were not able to hold the pace they’d shown on Friday.
Finally, Sami and Marko took their second overall podium, winning two stages and mixing it at the front. There was a brief moment on Saturday when they started to edge closer to second placed Takamoto and Aaron but ultimately that was not to develop into anything, and they made it to the third place.
2026 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After Round Two
| 1 | E. Evans | 60 |
| 2 | O. Solberg | 47 |
| 3 | T. Katsuta | 30 |
| 4 | A. Fourmaux | 28 |
| 5 | T. Neuville | 21 |
| 6 | S. Ogier | 18 |
| 7 | S. Pajari | 17 |
| 8 | E. Lappi | 9 |
| 9 | L. Rossel | 8 |
| 10 | Y. Rossel | 6 |
2026 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers’ Standings
After Round Two
| 1 | Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team | 117 |
| 2 | Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team | 66 |
| 3 | M-Sport Ford World Rally Team | 18 |
| 4 | Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team 2 | 14 |
Next up is Safari Rally Kenya held from the 12 to 15 March, just three weeks’ time.
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