Martin rues costly error

The 28-year-old Estonian held a healthy lead when he allowed his Focus to clip a rock, which all but tore off its left-rear wheel. After a brilliant effort by the team to repair the machine, the AUTOSPORT columnist recovered to finish seventh.

"One mistake on Saturday cost us a lot," said Martin. "It has been a strange rally as everyone seems to have made mistakes but we paid a high price for ours. On Friday we did everything we could to take the lead, but in the end it just didn't happen for us. I'm disappointed for myself and for the team.

"It will take a while to get over this. It hurts a lot and I still can't believe it happened. Let's see how many days it takes before I sleep properly again. Sweden has a lot of surprises for me. I can drive fast here but I can't put it altogether. People say drivers shouldn't lean on the snow banks but you have to here, it's part of the job. We were just unlucky that there was a rock there."

On a brighter note for Ford, Janne Tuohino finished fourth on his first outing as a manufacturer points-scoring driver.

"I'm really happy with the result and delighted with two fastest times, but still a little unhappy to have dropped time at the end of the second day otherwise I may have finished third," he said. "I came here to enjoy myself on my first rally for Ford and I've done that."