Elfyn Evans suffered disappointment at Rally Sweden over the weekend after being well placed to challenge for the win early on.

Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Kalle Rovanperä celebrated the first win for its new car in round two of the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship.

Rovanperä’s fellow Finnish driver Esapekka Lappi finished third to complete a double podium finish for the team on his first start for TGR since 2018.

Hyundai Shell Mobis’ Thierry Neuville finished second 22 second behindRovanperä

For most of the rally, all three Toyota Gazoo’s drivers were part of a close fight for victory on the unfamiliar, high-speed, snow-covered roads around the event’s new base in Umeå.

Rovanperä was disadvantaged on Friday by having to run first on the road as the highest-placed driver in the championship, but concluded Saturday leading team-mate Elfyn Evans by 8.3 seconds.

Dolgellau’s Evans was penalised 10 seconds overnight after an incident at the end of Saturday’s final stage, but his hopes of victory were ended in Sunday’s opener.

Having started with the centrally-supplied hybrid system deactivated due to an issue, Evans then had a spin in the stage and damaged the front of the car.

After stopping to make repairs he reached the end of the stage but, with the hybrid unit not showing the green light as required, was forced to retire in accordance with FIA safety procedures.

Rovanperä won the first of Sunday’s four stages as he added to his lead, even though he was also carrying a hybrid issue, and finished 22 seconds clear as he and co-driver Jonne Halttunen secured the third win of their WRC career.

By winning Rally Sweden, Rovanperä emulates his father Harri who achieved victory on the event in 2001.

He has also moved into the drivers’ championship lead by 14 points.

Lappi was in a close fight for second position throughout Sunday, ultimately finishing just 8.6 seconds away as he and co-driver Janne Ferm completed a fantastic comeback weekend with the team.

Toyota Gazoo Racing has also taken the lead of the manufacturers’ championship with an advantage of 24 points.

Three GR Yaris Rally1 cars finished in the top four places overall, with Takamoto Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston finishing in a fine fourth position and scoring good points for TGR WRT Next Generation.

Evans said: “It was a huge disappointment for me to end the rally this way.

“Everything was going OK in the first stage but on a long left-hander I lost the rear-end of the car and unfortunately I wasn’t able to catch it, so we had quite a high-speed spin.

“After making some repairs we managed to get going again but unfortunately we had to stop for hybrid-related reasons.

“I’m sorry for the team because they’ve obviously built a very fast car but so far I haven’t been able to bring back the results they deserve.

“It’s not nice to go into this break on a bad note but we’ll focus on the next round and on being the best we can there.”

Rovanperä said: “It feels very good to win here in Sweden. It was a really nice fight the whole weekend.

“After being the first car on the road on Friday, this is a really good result.

“It was a bit of a pity that Elfyn went out this morning because it was a great fight, but otherwise it’s a very good result for the team.

“I struggled a bit in the first rally with this car in Monte Carlo, but now I felt much more confident over the whole weekend with the car.

“Big thanks to the team because it has been a big job for them to make the car better all the time and make me comfortable.”

Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala said: “Kalle did an incredible job to win this rally.

At the start of the weekend I was a bit nervous how he would manage being the first car on the road, but he handled it very well and later in the rally the speed he had was really impressive.

“Thanks to him for delivering our first victory with the GR Yaris Rally1 and to the whole team for their hard work to make it happen.

“What happened to Elfyn this morning was very unfortunate for him.

“But having Esapekka also on the podium in his first rally back helped us score some very important points, while Takamoto also did a great rally too.”