Umeå, Sweden (AFP) — Elfyn Evans conquered the driving snow of Rally Sweden on Friday to edge ahead of a group of five drivers separated by less than 10 seconds.

Evans, the 2024 world championship runner-up, led in his Toyota from Japanese teammate Takamoto Katsuta and Estonia’s 2019 champion Ott Tanak of Hyundai.

Defending world champion Thierry Neuville of Hyundai was fifth just behind French driver Adrien Fourmaux in another Hyundai.

Welsh star Evans was in the lead for a long time on Friday before Katsuta briefly grabbed the advantage on stage five.

Evans and Tanak then took over the top spot before the Toyota man ended the day back in prime position.

“It is really difficult to drive, doing different things all the time and really difficult to control… not easy to drive, just trying to keep the lead,” Evans said.

Two-time world champion Kalle Rovanpera, in another Toyota, endured a testing day.

The Finnish driver ended up more than 25 seconds off the pace.

Seven more stages take place on Saturday covering 102km of timed running with the rally, the second of the season, ending on Sunday.