Elfyn Evans leads the World Rally Championship (WRC) after two rounds, following victory at Rally Sweden.
The Welsh driver finished 14.3 seconds ahead of Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta to win for the second successive year in the snow-bound forests of Vasterbotten, 600km north of Stockholm.
Finland’s Sami Pajari completed an all-Gazoo Racing podium.
Jon Armstrong continued his encouraging WRC debut season with eighth place, just ahead of M-Sport Ford team-mate and fellow Irishman Josh McErlean.
Evans led for the majority of the four-day event in Sweden – and including 9 Sunday bonuses leads the championship by 13 points from round one winner Oliver Solberg who placed fourth this weekend.
In his first season as a full-time Rally1 driver, Solberg took Thursday’s opening stage in Umea before the 24-year-old Swede lost time – and the lead to Toyota team-mate Evans – on Friday’s stage two.
Katsuta and his Irish co-driver Aaron Johnston briefly edged ahead over the final two stages of day two, but a commanding drive over Saturday saw the Welshman establish control of the rally.
The result was a repeat of last year’s Rally Sweden when Evans finished less than four seconds ahead of Katsuta to move to the top of the WRC standings – before missing out on the title to Sebastien Ogier in the final event of 2025.
Frenchman Ogier was once again absent in Sweden this weekend as the nine-time world champion continues his part-time approach to the calendar.
Round three sees a complete change in conditions for the drivers from 12-15 March with the Safari Rally Kenya, an event where Evans also took victory in 2025.
