Rally Sweden: PreviewTGR-WRT's home hero leads WRC onto Swedish snow

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team arrives to the high-speed snow spectacular of Rally Sweden (February 12-15) with home hero Oliver Solberg leading the FIA World Rally Championship standings.

Solberg stunningly led a TGR-WRT 1-2-3 on last month's season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo to begin his debut campaign with the team in perfect style.

After experiencing some of the most demanding winter conditions seen in many years on the 'Monte', crews now take on the WRC's only pure snow-and-ice event. Here, special studded tyres bite into the surface and allow for some of the highest speeds of the season, while drivers can 'lean' their cars on snowbanks by the sides of the road to carry more pace through corners.

Solberg, who was born in Sweden and races under the flag of mother Pernilla, heads for home with an early lead of four points over team-mate Elfyn Evans: a two-time former winner of the event. The Welshman's second Sweden win 12 months ago came in a thrilling final-day duel with Japanese team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, who completes the TGR-WRT manufacturers' championship line-up for this event. Finland's Sami Pajari competes close to home under the TGR-WRT2 banner.

Even though this event is not part of Sébastien Ogier's programme, TGR-WRT will once more enter five GR YARIS Rally1 cars in Sweden, with popular Italian driver Lorenzo Bertelli taking part in one of his favourite rallies through the team's customer programme for the third time in four years.

TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto continues his full-season programme at the wheel of a GR Yaris Rally2 car on an event he has started three times previously.

He is one of 13 drivers entering Rally Sweden in a GR Yaris Rally2. Teemu Suninen makes his debut in the car and joins fellow Finns Roope Korhonen and Tuukka Kauppinen among the leading entries. Australian Taylor Gill steps up to Rally2 level from Junior WRC, joining Alejandro Cachón, Eliott Delecour, and Fabio Schwarz. Tommi Jylhä and Bernhard ten Brinke also make their GR Yaris Rally2 debuts, while Michał Sołowow, Marko Viitanen and Alexander Villanueva compete for WRC Masters Cup honours.

Rally Sweden has since 2022 been based in Umeå, the largest city in northern Sweden and a short trip across the Gulf of Bothnia from Finland where TGR-WRT is based. The new location - closer to the Arctic Circle than to the capital city Stockholm - has helped ensure extreme winter conditions and brought even faster roads.

The rally starts on the edge of the city on Thursday evening with a full-length 10.23-kilometre version of the Umeå stage. The shorter Umeå Sprint form runs at the end of Friday after two loops in the forests to the north-east, which are separated by mid-day service. Saturday's format is similar, with a loop of three stages to the west run twice either side of service, and another run of Umeå Sprint at the end of the day. Sunday features two passes of Västervik to the north-east, before a second run of the full-length Umeå serves as the rally-ending Power Stage.

Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
"Rally Sweden is our only pure winter rally during the season and it can offer phenomenal conditions that the drivers truly love. When you have big snowbanks and icy roads that can give great grip through the studded tyres, it's one of the most beautiful scenes for a rally driver. For the first time in over 30 years, a Swedish driver is leading the championship, and hopefully Oliver will bring even more fans out to follow the rally. Depending on the conditions, it could be more challenging for him to be first car on the road on Friday. But it's still possible to win from there, as Elfyn did last year. This is also one of Taka's favourite events; he was fighting Elfyn for the victory last year, and it's a good chance for Sami to reset after the difficult Rallye Monte-Carlo. With a great road position, he just needs to enjoy the driving and then I'm sure things will turn around."

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
"Rally Sweden is a unique event in the WRC calendar and one that's usually a lot of fun to drive. Rallye Monte-Carlo was a solid start to the season for us and, as always, we'll be aiming once again to challenge for victory in Sweden. A lot depends on exactly what the conditions are like. If we get freezing temperatures and good solid icy conditions, then it should be possible to challenge from our position early on the road, like we could in 2025. On the other hand, if there's a lot of fresh snow to clean, it can be more difficult. We had some good preparation in very cold conditions at the Arctic Rally last week and if we could see something similar in Sweden, it will be a great event."

Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)
"To go to my home rally leading the championship is something crazy that I couldn't have dreamed of. It's an amazing feeling, but I'm still taking everything rally-by-rally, with a lot to learn in each different event I go to with this car. Rally Sweden has always been my favourite rally of the year. It's a great atmosphere with friends and family around. It also has my favourite conditions: it's the most fun that you can have in a rally car. Starting first on the road in Sweden is maybe not always the best place to be, but it's still something very cool for me. Maybe in some stages I can have an advantage, and others maybe not. I can only hope for good conditions, do my best, and drive as fast as I can."

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
"I'm really looking forward to Rally Sweden. When I started my rally career with the TGR WRC Challenge Program in Finland, I did a lot of my early driving on snow and ice, so I feel comfortable in these conditions. The roads in Sweden also have a similar high-speed character, which I enjoy. Ever since the event moved to Umeå, we've always had very nice conditions there with a good snow and ice base. I've been competitive there in the last few years and have good confidence from that, so this year I will try to do a similar performance to last year, or even better: this is my target."

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
"We had a disappointing start to the season at Rallye Monte-Carlo, but I'm looking forward to a better rally in Sweden. It's one of my very favourite rallies. I've always liked driving in those conditions, which are obviously quite natural for a Finnish driver. When I was starting out in rallying, we drove half of the season in winter conditions, so it's something I'm quite familiar with and normally a very enjoyable rally. I've seen that maybe the snowbanks could be smaller than in previous years, but hopefully we still get proper snow and ice conditions and can have a fun winter rally."

Yuki Yamamoto (Driver WRC Challenge Program GEN2)
"Rally Sweden is one of my favourite rallies. I've driven a lot of events on snow, including this one a few times previously, and the profile of the roads is similar to Finland, so it's something a bit more familiar for me and I'm very excited. There are many special challenges: the difference in grip when you go off-line can be even bigger on snow than on gravel, and although you can use the snowbanks to push a bit harder, you also need to respect them. Again, we're not registered for WRC2 points, but the plan is to push, have a good feeling and good pace."