Flat to the Lat in Sweden!

Jari-Matti Latvala put his disappointing Monte Carlo crash firmly and maturely behind him by charging to his second Rally Sweden win.

"It is amazing. Four years ago I won this rally and now I got it again. The first time I won this rally I became the youngest ever winner of a world championship rally and beat my hero Henri Toivonen's record. It's fantastic to win it again.” he said.

Fastest on 8 of the 24 tests, Latvala finished the only snow rally of the year with a 16 sec winning margin over another former Rally Sweden winner, Citroen's new boy Mikko Hirvonen. Hirvonen won 5 stages in only his second rally for Citroen, almost becoming the only driver to win for Citroen on only their second rally. Even a puncture for Latvala on the final day couldn't net Hirvonen this accolade, something even Sebastien Loeb couldn't achieve.

Hirvonen said: "It's not too bad. I think we learned a lot this weekend," he said. "Okay, I really did want to win this rally for the team but Jari-Matti was very strong this weekend. We had a fantastic fight and I really enjoyed it, but it's second this time."

Mads Ostberg took yet another impressive podium in Sweden, taking third. Set-up mistakes, brake problems and a car that jumped into launch control mode on SS17 all hindered the Norwegian, so second, or maybe even first, could have been firmly on the cards, despite the rapid pace of the two Finns ahead.

"Third place this time is like second place last time, it's a very good result. I was not able to fight Jari-Matti and Mikko this year. There's only one position left on the podium [first] and we'll try to get that next year." Ostberg, the multiple Norwegian Rally Champion, said.

Petter Solberg, in the other works Ford, ended the rally in fourth. The 2005 winner of this event scrapped with Mads Ostberg for most of the event, losing time with a spin, re-gaining it with a smart tyre choice, losing time again with set-up problems and losing even more time with not one but two punctures on the final day, including one on the Power Stage, dropping him back behind Ostberg. Even with the puncture on the Power Stage, he still took second placed points for the stage.

Evgeny Novikov showed his maturity yet again with a strong run to fifth. No problems and a mature drive netted his second Top-5 finish of the year. He also showed he has lost none of his sheer speed, but now using it more like a dimmer light switch, only using as much as he needed at the time, rather than either on or off. He showed rallying's living legend Seb Loeb how he can do this, keeping the Frenchman at bay. What makes this more impressive is that the Russian has only driven once before on snow, and it was in Norway 2009, whereas Loeb has won two snow events, one of which being Sweden.

The aforementioned eight-times World Champion, Seb Loeb, fought back to sixth after stuffing his DS3 WRC into a snow bank. He then punctured and spun on Day 2, but managed to consolidate this series of misadventures with a dominating Power Stage win.

Seventh went to Henning Solberg, consistent as usual, but the Norwegian was unable to keep the flying Loeb behind him. Nevertheless, seventh was a good result.

Patrick Sandell was the highest MINI in eighth, driving for the Prodrive-run team. A fairly novel error, leaving a piece of road section-only bodywork in place when he took to a stage lead to the car overheating, but crucially the it didn't expire. Something that couldn't be said for his team-mate.

"Overall it was a perfect weekend for me. It's been absolutely fabulous. I really like this car. It's fantastic to drive. We've been adapting step by step and now we are setting good times." said a happy Patrick Sandell.

Martin Prokop and Eyvind Brynildsen took the final two points for ninth and tenth, respectively.

Dani Sordo's other MINI expired with engine problems after ending up in a snow bank. Theirry Neuville prioritised experience over speed and came home 12^th, over 10 mins off the lead. Team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah ended 21^st in his DS3 WRC début, a further 7 mins back.

PG Andersson claimed a heroic home win in the S-WRC in his works Proton Satria Neo S2000. After leading in Monte Carlo before an engine fire put him out, Sweden heralded no problems and he took a dominating win, over 1 min 30 secs ahead of S-WRC Championship leader, Craig Breen.

"It's a fantastic feeling to finally do it with PROTON. We had no real problems from start to finish, although we made a few set-up changes to get the best out of the car. Today we just looked after our advantage and concentrated on bringing our car safely to the finish." said the Swede.

Breen was involved in a scrap over second with Henning Solberg's stepson, Pontus Tidemand, but Breen got the hammer down & stretched his lead over Tidemand to over a minute.

P-WRC Champion Hayden Paddon took fourth after ending up stuck in a snow bank for some time.

"Unfortunately we got stuck in a snowbank earler and that compromised our rally. It's not the result I wanted but at least we were there at the finish to score some points." He said.

Rounding out the rest of the S-WRC runners are Yazeed Al-Rhaji (on his first snow rally, and in the Ford Fiesta RRC), Maciej Oleksowicz and Alastair McRae, in the other works Proton.