Elfyn Evans is in third position after the first day of Rally Sweden.

Rally Sweden, the only pure winter event in the FIA World Rally Championship, got underway yesterday with Kalle Rovanperä recording the fastest time for Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team in the opening stage.

The action on Sweden’s snow and ice-covered roads began with yesterday morning’s shakedown: a chance for the teams and drivers to adapt to the conditions and make final adjustments ahead of the rally.

The GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID filled three of the top four positions at the end of shakedown, with reigning world champion and last year’s Rally Sweden winner Rovanperä fastest.

His team-mates Takamoto Katsuta and Elfyn Evans were third and fourth respectively, both within one second of the pace over the 5.45-kilometre stage.

The first competitive stage took place in Umeå; the largest city in northern Sweden playing host to the rally for the second year.

The Umeå Sprint test was 5.16 kilometres in length, beginning on fast forest roads and ending in a more technical spectator arena. Rovanperä was fastest by 1.6s, with Evans going third and Katsuta – who is nominated to score manufacturer points for TGR for the first time – in sixth.

Evans said: “This first stage was quite a nice one to start the rally with, but it wasn’t the best run for us.

"It wasn’t easy to read the grip and I was a bit careful in the junctions at the start.

"Even after testing it’s quite a culture shock to come here to Rally Sweden and face these unique conditions.

"In shakedown the conditions were quite different to what I had for my test, so I was a bit slow out of the blocks but we were able to find some improvements.

"With many new stages this year there’s been a lot of fresh pacenotes to write, and a lot of it’s very high-speed so it’s not easy, but we’ll give it our all and see what’s possible.”

What's next?

The first full day of the rally begins today with the Brattby and Sarsjöliden stages to the west of Umeå, which were driven on Saturday and Sunday respectively last year. They are followed by a new stage to the north: Botsmark, also the longest stage of the day at 25.81 kilometres. All three are repeated after mid-day service, with the second pass of Botsmark taking place in the dark before Thursday’s Umeå Sprint is revisited to round out the day.