Thierry Neuville leads Hyundai one-two in Rally Sweden shakedown

Thierry Neuville secured the top spot in Thursday’s shakedown for Rally Sweden, posting a best time of 1:51.8 on his final run through the Umeå City stage. The Belgian driver’s late effort allowed him to edge out teammate Adrien Fourmaux by 0.3 seconds as track conditions improved over the 3.44km route.

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, who had led the timesheets earlier in the morning, finished third with a 1:52.7, matching the time set by Esapekka Lappi. Takamoto Katsuta completed the top five, while Joshua McErlean secured sixth place for M-Sport Ford.

Oliver Solberg faced a difficult session, including an incident with a snowbank, eventually placing seventh. The remainder of the top 10 was filled out by Sami Pajari, Jon Armstrong, and Mārtiņš Sesks, with the field separated by less than three seconds at the conclusion of the warm-up.