Stage report
WRC Rally Sweden
WRC Sweden: Rovanpera sets the pace on championship return
World champion Kalle Rovanpera kicked off his return to the World Rally Championship in style by winning the opening stage of Rally Sweden on Thursday night.
Tom Howard
Edited: Feb 15, 2024, 10:37 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The two-time world champion, making the first start of his part-time 2024 WRC campaign, lit up the timing screens on the first of 18 snow stages – Umea Sprint, 5.16km.
Rovanpera, starting seventh on the road, posted a time 1.4s faster than Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta.
“It is always ok when the time is on that side of the clock,” said Rovanpera. “This is always tricky as it is icy, so it is tough to find the grip.”
Toyota enjoyed a 1-2-3 on the first super special stage held under lights. Elfyn Evans, starting second on the road, clocked the third fastest time 0.6s adrift of Rovanpera’s pace. The Welshman felt he wasn’t brave enough in the slippery conditions.
Hyundai’s Ott Tanak and M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux posted identical times to sit tied fourth 2.1s off.
Tanak’s run wasn’t the most comfortable for the 2019 world champion, as he said: “It was a clean drive, just on the first braking, my nut got caught on the other side of the belt, so it was bit painful.”
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport
Championship leader and first on the road Thierry Neuville struggled to generate traction from his i20 N, which resulted in the Belgian posting a time 2.7s adrift in sixth.
“We have to work a bit on the car to get a bit more traction tomorrow,” said Neuville. “We have to get good braking points, I was struggling a bit.”
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi was surprisingly slow compared to his rivals as the Finn dropped 4.6s on his return to the championship as a part-time driver in seventh.
“I don’t know. I guess it shows we do not have enough grip,” said Lappi.
M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster (+8.4s) came through in eighth ahead of top Rally2 competitor Oliver Solberg, who was only 0.4s behind Munster’s Rally1 Puma. The top 10 was completed by Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver Roope Korhonen.
The rally continues on Friday with crews tackling seven stages comprising of 107.90km.
Read Also:
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Hyundai confident Tanak’s WRC engine issue won’t return in Sweden
Next article WRC Sweden: Katsuta leads as Rovanpera, Tanak crash out
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Tom Howard
Sebastien Loeb tests again as Project Rally One submits WRC homologation papers
WRC
WRC 5 h
Sebastien Loeb tests again as Project Rally One submits WRC homologation papers
New WRC constructor offers update on 2027 car development
WRC
WRC
Rally Saudi Arabia
New WRC constructor offers update on 2027 car development
More from
Kalle Rovanperä
Why Kalle Rovanpera and Ott Tanak are returning to the WRC
WRC
WRC
Why Kalle Rovanpera and Ott Tanak are returning to the WRC
Kalle Rovanpera "open" on 2027 motorsport future ahead of talks with Toyota
WRC
WRC
Rally Finland
Kalle Rovanpera "open" on 2027 motorsport future ahead of talks with Toyota
Kalle Rovanpera to conduct demo run at WRC Rally Finland
WRC
WRC
Rally Finland
Kalle Rovanpera to conduct demo run at WRC Rally Finland
More from
Toyota Racing
Toyota “sad” WEC drivers' title was effectively decided before Monza finale
WEC
WEC
Monza
8 h
Toyota “sad” WEC drivers' title was effectively decided before Monza finale
Toyota fears “big gap” to rivals in Monza WEC after worst qualifying of 2026
WEC
WEC
Monza
Toyota fears “big gap” to rivals in Monza WEC after worst qualifying of 2026
Latest news
IndyCar 2026 season review: AJ Foyt Racing
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 26 min
IndyCar 2026 season review: AJ Foyt Racing
Ryan Blaney to skip events after suffering fall 'requiring medical attention'
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
30 min
Ryan Blaney to skip events after suffering fall 'requiring medical attention'
Mick Schumacher to skip wrist operation before 2027 IndyCar season
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 40 min
Mick Schumacher to skip wrist operation before 2027 IndyCar season
Hendrick Motorsports pokes fun at Denny Hamlin with Snickers photo: "That was all Rick"
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
48 min
Hendrick Motorsports pokes fun at Denny Hamlin with Snickers photo: "That was all Rick"
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe