The Japanese driver fronts a dominant Toyota 1-2-3 after eight stages on the rapid, snow-lined roads around Umeå, with Sami Pajari completing the trio as the GR Yaris Rally1 established itself as the reference package from dawn through to the floodlit Umeå Sprint.

The narrative shifted early. Championship leader Oliver Solberg began the day in control but his bid for a landmark home victory unravelled on SS3 (Andersvattnet 1). Sweeping the road, he was caught out by sudden snap oversteer, slid into a snowbank and damaged a tyre, dropping in excess of 30 seconds.

“I went off the road, there was so much snow everywhere,” he explained. “I completely underestimated how difficult it would be to be first on the road.”

Evans capitalised immediately. Benefitting from a cleaner line, the Welshman asserted himself across the remainder of the morning loop and opened up a 14.5sec margin by midday, with Toyota firmly in command.

Conditions evolved markedly on the second pass. As the ice base deteriorated and ruts intensified, Katsuta responded with a calculated push. He trimmed Evans’ lead stage by stage, edging ahead by 0.1sec on SS7 before consolidating his position with a tidy run through the closing Umeå Sprint.

“It was quite a tricky afternoon but I think we did a good job saving the tyres,” said Katsuta. “The second pass was very rough in places, so I just tried to be clean.”

Pajari produced one of the day’s most assured drives to secure third overall, 22.2sec off the lead, balancing outright pace with disciplined tyre management.

For Hyundai Motorsport, the opening leg delivered mixed fortunes. Esapekka Lappi led the team’s charge in fourth, 45.9sec behind, although he admitted the sensation was more “drifting” than pushing. Adrien Fourmaux occupied fifth, narrowly ahead of the recovering Solberg, while Thierry Neuville’s early excursion on SS3 cost significant time, leaving him seventh and over 1min 40sec adrift. The reigning world champion did, however, halt Toyota’s clean sweep of stage wins by topping the penultimate test.

It was a more challenging day for M-Sport Ford. All three Puma Rally1 entries encountered tyre delaminations in the morning loop. Mārtiņš Sesks retired following repeated issues, while Jon Armstrong and Joshua McErlean ended the leg eighth and ninth respectively, with WRC2 frontrunner Roope Korhonen completing the top 10.

Saturday features seven further stages covering just over 100km of competitive distance — shorter on paper, but with no reduction in intensity.