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Day 3: Solberg wins

Petter Solberg has won the Swedish Rally by over two minutes - having been handed a dominant lead when his two main rivals Marcus Gronholm and Sebastien Loeb both retired on the final morning. Markko Martin and Toni Gardemeiser inherited the lower podium places

The first half of the rally had been remarkably close, as Solberg and Gronholm swapped the lead six times in the first 12 stages and were regularly split by mere fractions of a second.

Then Solberg's dominance through the Vargasen stage yesterday afternoon earned him a 12.6s overnight advantage - a lead that stretched to 2m11.1s after Gronholm and Loeb hit trouble. An ecstatic crowd of Norweigan fans mobbed the jubilant Solberg as soon as he got out of the car.

"It's incredible, incredible!" he said. "It's a big dream for me. I can't tell you how much work the Subaru team and Pirelli have put into everything since Monte Carlo. We've moved up to a different level."

"That's one of Petter's best wins," reckoned Subaru team boss David Lapworth. "He knew that after Monte Carlo he really needed championship points, but in his heart he desperately wanted to win this rally, and that's brought out the best in him."

Gronholm was the first to fall by the wayside on the dramatic final morning. He had lost another 0.4s to Solberg on the day's first stage and was fighting back on SS16 when he cut a corner too tightly, rolled, and ripped a wheel from his Peugeot 307 - angering his soon-to-retire team boss Corrado Provera.

"It was a silly mistake," said Provera, who stands down at the end of the month. "Of course we want to win rallies but at the same time we want points for the championship."

By the time Loeb retired on the road section after SS18 he was no longer in contention for victory. The reigning champion had been right with Solberg and Gronholm early on leg one but a few small errors cost him time, and then an engine problem began to develop late on Saturday. The Citroen team detuned the Xsara in the hope that Loeb could nurse the car to the finish without losing second place. He made it as far as the antepenultimate stage only to grind to a halt on the way to Rammen 2.

Markko Martin therefore found himself in second place for Peugeot. Although he had made great progress with his new 307 on the rally, Martin reckoned the major changes he required to get the car to his liking could not be made in the service area and drove conservatively on the final leg as a consequence.

The Ford team will be delighted with third and fifth for Toni Gardemeister and Henning Solberg, with the less experienced Roman Kresta also doing well to come home eighth. All three Focuses had been running outside the top ten in the early part of leg one, with Gardemeister very unhappy with the car's handling initially. He never really felt comfortable, but did improve his pace enough to battle past his team-mates, the Skodas and the Mitsubishis.

"We were very lucky," admitted Gardemeister, who now leads the championship after his second consecutive podium. "We just tried to keep our pace and keep our position."

Harri Rovanpera was another to improve through the rally after a stuttering start. The former event winner was happier with his Mitsubishi by the final morning and set some promising stage times, although the loss of fifth gear on SS19 provided a late drama. The Finn was convinced he would be passed by the elder Solberg but Henning had to be content with fifth after an excellent performance by Rovanpera on the final stage - where he went fastest overall despite his gear shortage

"I think it will be Henning because I was on the rev-limiter in fourth for too long," said Rovanpera at the stage finish. "Anyway, we tried this weekend. I'm a little sad because this morning we had a chance to be on the podium."

Privateer Peugeot 307 driver Daniel Carlsson set some tremendous times (including fastest overall on SS18) this morning and secured sixth ahead of Mitsubishi's Gigi Galli and Kresta. Carlsson had been in third overall on the first two stages of leg one before losing a minute after damaging his suspension on a rock. The Swede had fun as he charged up the top ten on the final leg.

"There's a lot more grip now, it's really enjoyable to drive," he said after SS19. "Now the ditches are really close - sometimes we're in them!"

Galli was another of the stars of the opening day, when he too ran third for a time, but driveshaft problems on Saturday afternoon cost him several positions. The Italian was delighted with seventh nevertheless.

"We are very, very happy to be here," he said. "I think we did a very good job and had a good chance to do a lot of kilometres with the car."

Several contenders for the final points hit trouble in the closing stages. Janne Tuohino tore a wheel from his Skoda Fabia just a few corners from the end of SS19 and retired, while Subaru's Chris Atkinson lost 13 minutes when he went off on SS18.

"It was feeling quite good and we were pushing on a bit harder than we had been before," said Atkinson. "We got a bit wide over a crest, spun backwards off the road and got stuck on some rocks. The spectators had to help us and we lost 13 minutes, but we kept going and it's all part of the experience."

Atkinson had been outside the top 20 on the opening stages as he tried to acclimatise to snow rallying for the first time. He improved his pace impressively and regularly set top ten stage times on the final two legs, reaching ninth place before his accident. His Subaru team-mate Stephane Sarrazin never quite got to grips with the surface in the same way, but got to the finish in 13th place.

DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom made it into the top ten for Skoda despite losing several minutes after power steering failure on Saturday. He beat Anthony Warmbold by just 0.1s in the battle for tenth.

Completing a miserable result for Monte Carlo winners Citroen, Francois Duval came home only 12th after losing four minutes with a trio of punctures on Saturday morning. He had been quick enough to run fourth - ahead of Martin - before the problems, but made little progress on leg three as he struggled with being first on the road. Duval was forced to sweep away the fresh snow early on, and then on the repeat run he was unsettled by the loss of studs from his tyres on the now mostly gravel roads.

"It's really difficult to drive, the car is moving all the time," he said after SS19. "It's very dangerous. I drive at 70 percent because it's impossible to drive the car."

Toshi Arai won the Production WRC by a vast 18 minute margin after every other contender retired or had major problems, including long-time second placed man Aki Teiskonen, who dropped out with one stage to go.



Petter Solberg (Subaru Impreza) 3h00m52.1s
Markko Martin (Peugeot 307) 3h03m03.2s
Toni Gardemeister (Ford Focus) 3h04m06.8s
Harri Rovanpera (Mitsubishi Lancer) 3h04m18.5s
Henning Solberg (Ford Focus) 3h04m21.9s
Daniel Carlsson (Peugeot 307) 3h04m34.6s
Gigi Galli (Mitsubishi Lancer) 3h04m56.1s
Roman Kresta (Ford Focus) 3h05m31.7s
Jani Paasonen (Skoda Fabia) 3h05m43.2s
Mattias Ekstrom (Skoda Fabia) 3h07m56.3s



Anthony Warmbold (Ford Focus) 3h07m56.4s
Francois Duval (Citroen Xsara) 3h08m11.7s
Stephane Sarrazin (Subaru Impreza) 3h08m33.1s
Chris Atkinson (Subaru Impreza) 3h17m43.6s

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