DOLGELLAU’S Elfyn Evans leads the FIA World Rally Championship after victory at Rally Sweden over the weekend.
Evans and Takamoto Katsuta delivered a thrilling finish and another maximum score for Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team as they achieved a one-two result at the spectacular second round of the championship.
Evans said on Sunday: “It’s been an amazing weekend. We led for a lot of the rally but the margins were always tight and it was never really comfortable.
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“This morning I got caught napping a bit in the first stage by Taka, who really made me fight for it, and thankfully we managed to turn it around and unlock good pace on the next stage.
“I’m very happy with the end result and to have won the Power Stage as well.
“It’s been a very good start to the season for us and we couldn’t really have dreamed of much better.
“Usually after a good Rallye Monte-Carlo it’s hard to score well in Sweden but the good conditions gave us a chance and I feel we made the most of it.”
The FIA World Rally Championship’s only pure winter event on snow and ice was one of the most exciting for many years.
Evans and co-driver Scott Martin did an excellent job to lead after opening the road on Friday, heading a tight five-way battle for victory covered by less than 10 seconds.
After a high-paced battle through Saturday, Evans entered Sunday’s final leg leading Katsuta by just three seconds and with only a further 3.3s back to third-placed Thierry Neuville.
Katsuta and his co-driver Aaron Johnston drove a superb rally in contention for a first WRC victory, and were quickest out of the traps on the final morning to win the first pass of the 29.35-kilometre Västervik and take the lead from Evans and Martin by 4.5s.
Evans responded emphatically on the second pass of the stage, going 6.7s faster than anyone to reclaim the lead. Defending an advantage of 3.7s into the rally-ending Power Stage, Evans secured victory in style as he edged Katsuta to the best time by just 0.1s and to top the Super Sunday classification by 0.8s.
His overall winning margin of 3.8 seconds is the smallest in Rally Sweden history.
The victory is a 10th WRC triumph for Evans and his second in Sweden, exactly five years to the day since he and Martin scored their first ever win for TGR-WRT on the very same event.
Taking a maximum score of 35 points, Evans moves into a 28-point lead in the drivers’ championship over Rallye Monte-Carlo winner Sébastien Ogier, who did not include Sweden in his partial programme of rallies.