2026 WRC Round 2, Rally Sweden Saturday stages: Evans retakes lead as Toyota holds top four

Elfyn Evans retook the overall lead after 104.42 km of timed stages on Saturday at Rally Sweden. Toyota’s classification after Saturday’s stages showed him and co-driver Scott Martin on a total time of 2h 05m 14.6s, 13.3 seconds ahead of Takamoto Katsuta. Sami Pajari was third, while Oliver Solberg moved up to fourth, with four Toyota Rally1 cars occupying the top four places. Compared with Friday evening, when Katsuta led by just 2.8 seconds, the advantage had switched sides a day later, with stages that would decide the victory and additional points still to come on Sunday.

Saturday’s action took place mainly on three fast forest roads west of Umeå, each tackled once in the morning and once in the afternoon, with wear still needing to be managed after the midday service. Evans set the fastest time on the morning’s opening stage to take the lead straight back from Katsuta. On each of the next two stages, he was within a second of the fastest time, extending his advantage to 16.1 seconds by the end of the morning. He won again on the second stage of the afternoon’s repeat loop, and his lead reached 18 seconds at one point. That consistent sequence of times laid the foundation for his return to control of the rally.

Katsuta struggled to find enough grip in the morning and could not maintain the pace he had shown in the second half of Friday. His feeling behind the wheel improved in the afternoon, and he gradually reduced the deficit, ultimately limiting his overnight gap to 13.3 seconds. In the low temperatures, crews also had to monitor the condition of their tyre studs and tread: when completing several stages on the same set of tyres, pushing too hard early on could leave them short of grip later. Katsuta remained in contention for victory. With two long stages and the Power Stage still scheduled for Sunday, that 13.3-second gap could be overturned by a few significant mistakes or some strong stage performances.

Pajari took two stage wins, on SS12 and SS14, and ended Saturday 12.1 seconds behind Katsuta and 25.4 seconds adrift of Evans overall. After his unexpected retirement in Monte Carlo, he rebuilt his rhythm on stages run entirely on snow and ice. Although Toyota occupied the top three places overall, the internal contest was no orderly procession: each driver could still put pressure on his team-mates by setting the fastest stage times, while attacks from crews behind would also force those ahead to choose between preserving their tyres and defending their positions.

Having ended Friday in sixth, Solberg immediately gained two places on Saturday’s opening stage, then set the fastest time on SS11. He finished the day fourth, 33 seconds behind Pajari. The time lost while running first on the road and sweeping away snow the previous day could not be fully recovered in a single day, but more favourable road conditions helped him move back towards the front among the manufacturer entries. WRC2 drivers Roope Korhonen and Teemu Suninen were tenth and eleventh overall respectively, separated by just 16.6 seconds in the battle for the class lead, showing that the separate contests further down the field were still very much alive.

Hyundai driver Lappi was fifth, with Fourmaux behind him; Toyota held the top four places at the end of Saturday. Sunday would feature two passes through the Västervik stage in the reverse direction, with the final service scheduled between them, before another run through the full Umeå stage as the rally-closing Power Stage. The reversed route would alter the drivers’ familiarity with braking points and crests, while the additional stage points would encourage the leading drivers to keep pushing. Evans’ 13.3-second lead was enough to give him an advantage, but not enough to let him focus solely on bringing the car safely to the finish.

Results for all Rally1 crews after Saturday’s stages