Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) finished the Rally of Sweden, the second round of the World Rally Championship, in fourth place on Sunday. The victory went to his Finnish teammate Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai). The Welshman Elfyn Evans (Toyota) came second at 29.6, the Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux (Ford Puma) third at 47.9. Neuville was 1:46.3 too slow to win and stranded 58.4 from the podium.
The 35-year-old from Liège, winner in Monte-Carlo three weeks ago, remains the World Cup leader. He earned ten points for his fourth-place finish on Saturday, five points for his third-place finish on Sunday and three points in the Power Stage, where he finished third. Thanks to the new points system, Evans scored more points than rally winner Lappi and came within three points of Neuville. Among the manufacturers, Hyundai and Toyota share the lead with 87 points each.
It was the second World Cup victory for 33-year-old Lappi. Six and a half years ago he won the Rally of Finland in his own country. A great future was predicted for him, but after wandering around with a number of manufacturers, he was never able to live up to expectations. At Hyundai, Lappi shares the third car this season with the Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen and the Spaniard Dani Sordo.
World champion Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota Yaris) and Ott Tänak (Hyundai i20) made a mistake on Friday and did not play a significant role afterwards. Lappi took over the lead on Friday afternoon and fought with the Japanese Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota Yaris), until he made a mistake on Saturday morning. From that moment on, the Finn was able to control the rally.
Grégoire Munster (Ford Puma) made his debut with a Rally1 on snow. His only ambition was to finish and he succeeded. On Friday he lost four minutes after a flat tire and on Saturday he ended up in a wall of snow, but was still able to continue his race. In the final, he finished 24th at 23:29.0.
This contains inserted content from a social media network that wants to write or read cookies. You have not given permission for this.