The protagonists of the Rally Sweden, the second round of the championship, change once again: in a round nearing its conclusion with Super Sunday, Elfyn Evans has returned to lead the general classification after a Friday in which his performances had allowed the other Toyota driver, Takamoto Katsuta, to take the lead in the provisional standings. A ‘new’ driver in the lead in a rally where Toyota remains unbeaten, with third position occupied by Sami Pajari and fourth by Oliver Solberg, recovering after difficulties at the start of the weekend.
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SS9-SS11: Evans takes advantage of Katsuta’s missteps
Saturday morning of the Swedish rally therefore began with a change of leadership: in SS9, Evans managed to take advantage of Katsuta’s clear difficulties (only 4th) to return to the lead and pull away from the Japanese driver, who was even outside the top 5 in the next two stages. Conversely, Solberg proved to be in better form than the previous day, setting the fastest time in SS11 and putting pressure on Pajari for 3rd place. Also noteworthy was the return of Ford, particularly with Sesks’ success in SS10.
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SS12-SS15: Evans defends
The afternoon therefore restarted with a Toyota poker in the general classification, but in this case there were no changes in positions from the first to the last special stage. Pajari managed to defend his podium position thanks to the fastest time obtained in both SS12 and SS14, despite Solberg’s 3rd place in SS13 and 2nd in SS15. Unlike the first half of the day, Katsuta delivered more brilliant performances, finishing ahead of everyone in the final stage, but not getting close enough to Evans, who with the win in SS13 established a lead of just over 13 seconds over the Japanese driver, thus maintaining the overall leadership. Super Sunday will therefore decide the Rally Sweden with four stages scheduled plus the Power Stage, with Esapekka Lappi meanwhile leading the Hyundai drivers in fifth position.
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2026 Rally Sweden, standings after SS15 (Top-10)
| POS. | DRIVER | CAR | TIME/GAP |
| 1 | Elfyn Evans | Toyota | 2:05:14.6 |
| 2 | Takamoto Katsuta | Toyota | +13.3 |
| 3 | Sami Pajari | Toyota | +25.4 |
| 4 | Oliver Solberg | Toyota | +58.4 |
| 5 | Esapekka Lappi | Hyundai | +1:09.5 |
| 6 | Adrien Fourmaux | Hyundai | +1:17.7 |
| 7 | Thierry Neuville | Hyundai | +3:10.0 |
| 8 | Jon Armstrong | Ford | +3:24.8 |
| 9 | Joshua McErlean | Ford | +4:48.8 |
| 10 | Rooper Korhonen | Toyota | +8:24.1 |
