Latvala claims historic Swedish win

The 22-year-old Finn dominated the event from the first full-length stages on Friday morning.

A complete set of stage wins during the opening day gave Latvala a massive lead over the competition, which he proceeded to nurse through the remaining two days, ultimately beating teammate Mikko Hirvonen by 58.3 seconds.

Latvala said that becoming the WRC's youngest rally winner meant a great deal to him - especially as the record had previously been held by the late Henri Toivonen, who was 24 years old when he won the 1980 RAC Rally.

"He was a big idol of mine," Latvala said. "I've been thinking that I want to beat this record and we've done it here in Sweden. It's an unbelievable feeling, especially after our difficult start in Monte Carlo."

The result was a spectacular success for Ford, who filled all three podium places with Latvala, Hirvonen and Stobart driver Gigi Galli, and took four of the top five positions as Ramsport's Andreas Mikkelsen claimed fifth behind Petter Solberg (Subaru).

Matthew Wilson had been on course for fifth until the penultimate stage, when a throttle problem cost him 25 minutes, elevating the chasing Mikkelsen into the top five. Mikkelsen had closed on Wilson throughout the second half of the rally, and was delighted to claim his first WRC points.

Before Henning Solberg crashed out of fourth on Saturday morning, Ford had been on course for a crushing 1-2-3-4 finish. The team leave Sweden in the lead of both championships, as arch-rivals Citroen endured a miserable weekend.

World champion Sebastien Loeb crashed when running third on Friday, and although he resumed for the second day, he only returned briefly before terminal engine problems ended his weekend. He is now eight points behind Hirvonen in the drivers' standings.

Loeb's teammate Dani Sordo began the weekend with a five-minute penalty having required an engine change prior to the start of the rally, and ultimately took sixth.

Sordo was helped by the high level of attrition in the rally. In addition to Loeb, Wilson and Solberg's problems, Subaru's Chris Atkinson spent 15 minutes off the road on Friday, while privateer Impreza driver Mad Ostberg dropped out of the points after an accident early on day two. The young Norweigan had run as high as fourth early on in a highly impressive performance, and ultimately recovered to ninth.

Suzuki took another points finish with Toni Gardemeister in seventh, despite losing four minutes with an error on Saturday. His teammate Per-Gunnar Andersson ran in the top eight initially before stopping with engine failure.

Leading finishers:

Pos  Driver        Make        Time
 1.  Latvala       Ford        2h46:41.2
 2.  Hirvonen      Ford        +    58.3
 3.  Galli         Ford        +  2:23.2
 4.  P Solberg     Subaru      +  2:59.4
 5.  Mikkelsen     Ford        +  5:46.0
 6.  Sordo         Citroen     +  7:13.1
 7.  Gardemeister  Suzuki      + 10:35.3
 8.  Hanninen      Mitsubishi  + 12:27.5
 9.  Ostberg       Subaru      + 13:28.5
10.  Ketomaa       Subaru      + 13:50.7