Elfyn Evans has responded to Takamoto Katsuta’s Sunday morning challenge, grabbing back the lead of Rally Sweden with just one stage to go.
Katsuta had outpaced his Toyota team-mate by 7.5 seconds on the first pass of Västervik – the longest stage of the rally – to move into the lead by 4.5s.
Evans, who had led since Friday evening, however turned the screw on the second pass to win the stage by a massive 6.7s over Thierry Neuville, and retake the lead by 3.7s.
“I didn’t know how it went,” Evans admitted at the stop-line.
“It felt better [than the first pass] but, s***, I needed a response.”