Hirvonen tops Sweden shakedown

The Finn ran the 4 km Rada stage in 1:56.9 in his Ford Focus, an impressive 0.7 seconds quicker than Loeb's Citroen Xsara.

Hirvonen has competed in the rally three times previously, but has a best finish of ninth in 2004 when he was driving for Subaru. He is targeting a podium finish this year after teammate Marcus Gronholm's victory in Monte Carlo.

Home driver Daniel Carlsson matched Sebastien Loeb's time in second as he got to grips with the Mitsubishi WRC he will be driving this weekend.

Carlsson was granted a late switch yesterday to move from his Super 1600 entry over the privateer Lancer originally entered by Harri Rovanpera.

Henning Solberg was fourth quickest in the OMV Peugeot 307, ahead of Gigi Galli in his privateer Mitsubishi. Last year's winner Petter Solberg was sixth quickest for Subaru.

The rally proper begins tomorrow, with the 18 km stage of Fredriksberg 1 at 8am local time.

Pos  Driver            Make       Time
 1.  Mikko Hirvonen    Ford       1:56.9
 2.  Sebastien Loeb    Citroen    1:57.6
 =.  Daniel Carlsson   Mitubishi  1:57.6
 4.  Henning Solberg   Peugeot    1:57.8
 5.  Gigi Galli        Mitsubishi 1:58.0
 6.  Petter Solberg    Subaru     1:58.1
 7.  Manfred Stohl     Peugeot    1:58.6
 8.  Chris Atkinson    Subaru     1:58.9
 9.  Janne Tuohino     Citroen    1:59.0
10.  Marcus Gronholm   Ford       1:59.1