Gronholm takes early lead in Sweden

Despite running first on the road thanks to last month's win, and therefore acting as a snowplough to the other competitors, the Finn won both the opening two stages of the event to take a nine-second lead into the first service park period.

Gronholm was 2.8 seconds quicker than double World Champion Sebastien Loeb over the first test, and pulled out a further 6.2 seconds in the second stage.

Gronholm's teammate Mikko Hirvonen proved how fast the new Focus is on snow, by finishing the opening stages in third, but already more than 25 seconds behind Gronholm, and the leading duo seem set to battle for the rally victory on their own.

Mattias Ekstrom impressed in his home event, finishing the first two stages in fourth, 7.6 seconds behind Hirvonen. The former DTM champion is competing in his home event again, in Red Bull Skoda's second Fabia.

Chris Atkinson continued his impressive Monte Carlo form by finishing the first two stages in fifth position. The Swedish Rally is the first one this season where the Australian has prior experience of the event in WRC machinery, having finished 16th in his first try for Subaru last year.

Teammate Petter Solberg's chances of repeating his famous Swedish Rally victory from last year already appear to have vanished however, after he suffered driveshaft problems in the first stage.

Just moments after starting the 18km test of Fredriksberg, Solberg's left rear driveshaft broke, locking the Norwegian into front-wheel drive only. He haemorrhaged time through the opening stages, losing 52 seconds on the first stage, before dropping nearly two minutes on the next stage.

He now rests two minutes and 46 seconds behind leader Gronholm, and will now rely on some bad luck to befall his competitors to get up into the points this weekend.

Gigi Galli rests in sixth despite stalling at the startline of the first stage, ahead of Daniel Carlsson, who is in seventh despite gearbox problems.

Pos Driver      Make       Time
 1. Gronholm    Ford       24:46.6
 2. Loeb        Citroen    + 19.0
 3. Hirvonen    Ford       + 26.6
 4. Ekstrom     Skoda      + 34.2
 5. Atkinson    Subaru     + 35.9
 6. Galli       Mitsubishi + 36.3
 7. Carlsson    Mitsubishi + 38.8
 8. Solberg     Subaru     + 39.4
 9. Stohl       Peugeot    + 40.2
10. Radstrom    Subaru     + 40.5
11. Solberg     Peugeot    + 49.1
12. Tuohino     Citroen    + 53.8
13. Katajamoki  Ford       + 1:13.8
14. Joge        Peugeot    + 1:19.2
15. Sordo       Citroen    + 1:22.0