The World Rally Championship will expand to 12 Rally1 cars for the second round of the season in Sweden next month.
The release of the entry list for the 13-16 February event marks the largest Rally1 field since Rally Catalunya in 2022, where 12 top-flight cars were also entered.
Privateers Lorenzo Bertelli and Jourdan Serderidis will bolster the Rally Sweden entry, with the former driving a rented Toyota GR Yaris and the latter piloting a fourth M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1.
Bertelli made his last WRC outing behind the wheel of a GR Yaris in Sweden last year, while Serderidis contested WRC rounds driving a Ford Puma in Central Europe, Greece and Kenya in 2024.
Earlier this week, it was announced that highly rated WRC rising star Martins Sesks would begin a six-round partial programme with M-Sport in Sweden following a trio of impressive displays last season.
Sesks will join M-Sport full-time drivers Gregoire Munster and Josh McErlean at the rally to complete the British squad’s line-up.
The factory Toyota squad will field four GR Yaris Rally1 entries headed by two-time world champion Kalle Rovanpera, who will be joined by Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta. The trio are all registered to score manufacturer points, while a fourth GR Yaris will be driven by new signing Sami Pajari under the marque’s effective ‘B’ team umbrella.
Hyundai will field its three full-time entries for defending world champion Thierry Neuville, Ott Tanak and new recruit Adrien Fourmaux.
Sweden will also mark the first WRC2 points-scoring round for Oliver Solberg aboard his new Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 run by Printsport.
Meanwhile 2017 WRC2 champion Pontus Tidemand, who enjoyed a handful of top-level outings with M-Sport in 2019, returns to the championship after almost five years away in a Skoda Fabia RS Rally2.
Last year’s Junior WRC champion Romet Jurgenson will make his first WRC2 start after earning a graduation to the second-tier class through the FIA’s Rally Star programme.
A 12-car field will also line up for the first round of the Junior WRC Championship in Sweden, including WRC women’s driver programme shootout participants Lyssia Baudet and Claire Schonborn.
