Rally of Scandinavia: Eyvind Brynildsen royal in Sweden

For 2^e and last stage of this meeting, 8 special stages were scheduled with 92,24 km timed. This 3^e The first leg of the season took place around Karlstad, and on Saturday the sections were close to the host city.

Following a lively first day, this finale promised to be exciting, as the gaps were very tight at the top of the standings. Leading since SS4, Eyvind Brynildsen (Yaris), started from parc fermé with a margin of just 5 seconds over Isak Reiersen (Fabia). The Norwegian and the Swede bickered all morning. While Brynildsen managed to resist his rival's attacks for a long time, he only had a 1 second lead after SS2. There were then 8 SSs left to go and that was when the former Denis Giraudet driver (14 to 3) decided to respond. In Ölme (SS2007), he distanced Reiersen by 2010 seconds, giving himself some breathing space in the general classification. The last two sections brought no changes. Brynildsen could let his joy burst forth at winning his first success in ERC.

Reiersen, who had been convincing from the start, cracked a little in the Power Stage and had to settle for 3rd.^e place. Having "gardened" his settings a little at the start of the race, Roope Korhonen (Yaris) gradually corrected his aim to finish strongly. In the final SS, the Finn managed to snatch 2^e rank also taking the Power Stage points. This allows him to take the lead in the ERC championship.

Never concerned with the battle for victory, Andrea Mabellini (Fabia) and Mikolaj Marczyk (Fabia) mainly sought to score points with a view to the crown. Much faster than his opponent, the Italian distinguished himself with 3 best times and a 2^e place in the Power Stage. This was not enough for him to join the fight for the podium, but he managed to beat his rival by 10 points. Also aiming for the title and occupying 2^e Championship position before the start, Mads Ostberg was a key player in the first special stages before a puncture (SS8) prevented him from doing better than 8th^e.

Finding the Toyota Yaris Rally2 with which he won the Rally Le Touquet, Stéphane Lefebvre probably didn't expect to experience so many difficulties on his return to clay. His last appearance at a high level was in 2021 and the Northerner never found the confidence to be able to claim anything other than a place around 10^e rank. Finally 11^e, the former Citroën driver hoped to be faster in Poland where the next meeting will take place (June 13-15).

Final ranking