Finish: Loeb takes Swedish win

Loeb's consistency despite changeable conditions was the key to his success. Gronholm leapt into the lead on Friday in the new Peugeot 307, only to suffer a power steering failure that handed the lead to Martin of Ford. But the Estonian hit trouble on Saturday when he struck a snow-covered rock that severely damaged his Focus.

With his two main challengers suffering major delays, Loeb rammed home his advantage on Saturday afternoon, helped when Gronholm suffered a time-consuming spin near the end of the day. Marcus compounded this with another spin on Sunday morning, as the snow fell with a vengeance, and spent the rest of the event ensuring he stayed second, ahead of reigning world champion Petter Solberg (Subaru).

Loeb became only the fourth driver to score back-to-back Monte Carlo/Sweden victories, and he has taken a healthy early points lead as a result. He won the event by 46secs.

"It feels very nice," he said. "It was important for me to prove that I can win rallies not just on tarmac. It was a great team effort from Citroen, and I could push when it was safe, but I took no risks. Speed and consistency won this rally."

While the delayed Martin could do no better than seventh, Ford's snow-laden cloud was brightened by the performance of its young Finn, Janne Tuohino. He finished an excellent fourth, getting the better of a fierce final day battle with Citroen's Spanish veteran Carlos Sainz, although the latter did encounter some late engine problems.

Henning Solberg, Petter's brother, completed the top six in a Peugeot 206. Fellow Peugeot privateer Daniel Carlsson pipped Subaru works driver Mikko Hirvonen to the final point.

The top Group N car home was DTM racer Mattias Ekstrom (Mitsubishi), who proved he's just as quick on snow as on Europe's racetracks. As he was not registered for the Production Car World Cup, however, victory in that officially went to Jani Paasonen, who beat late engine problems as well as the returning Alister McRae.

Next stop for the WRC is one of the two new rounds for 2004, Mexico.