Shorter review this week people, there was one reply last time, so I can't be bothered to put too much effort in.

Round 2 of the WRC sees one of the toughest and fastest rallies of the calendar on the snow and ice of Sweden. The snowfall came late this year meaning alot of the stages had minimal snow and ice cover across the 3 days.

The rally was difficult this year, with only one 15 minute remote service in the middle of each day.

Petter Solberg set the fastest time on the Super Special on Thursday night and then continued about his own rally and concentrating on a decent points finish, ending up 4th.

Day One was the beginning of a bad 100th rally for 4 time World Champion Seb Loeb. He became distracted after checking a pace note and turned in too early to a corner getting the front of the car caught in a snow bank and rolled the car, becoming beached for a while, with Hirvonen passing him on the stage. He eventually got back to the remote service, but it wasn't to be as the car broke down shortly after leaving the service park. He returned on Day 2 under SuperRallye rules, he was quick, almost too quick, getting a speeding ticket between stages, but couldn't make any real progress with a recurring engine difficulty and called it a day part way through Day 2.

The Fords were dominating the leaderboard with 5 in the top 8 positions at one point. However Henning Solberg made a mistake and crashed out and Matthew Wilson had a throttle jammed open after coming over a jump and the cable coming off the pedal. They were both on course for decent points finishes.

Dani Sordo was penalised 5 minutes before the rally for an engine change following his failure in Monte Carlo, but powered on through the rally to end in 6th.

Local entrant Andreas Mikkelsen claimed a very respectable 5th place.

Toni Gardemeister local knowledge helped Suzuki get their second points finish in as many WRC rounds with a 7th place finish and 8th was collected by fellow Scandinavian Juho Hanninen.

Gigi Galli secured a podium in his Ford Focus to enforce a Ford 1-2-3.
Mikko Hirvonen was quick all weekend and secured his second 2nd place finish in 2 rallies, but was no match for team mate Jari Matti Latvala took an impressive lead on Day One and dominated the rally when he needed to, finishing 58.3 seconds ahead by the end to make him the youngest ever driver to win a WRC event at the age of 22.


Drivers Championship:

1. M. HIRVONEN (FIN)
16 Pts

2= J. LATVALA (FIN)
10 Pts

2= S. LOEB (F)
10 Pts

4= G. GALLI (I)
9 Pts

4= P. SOLBERG (N)
9 Pts

6. C. ATKINSON (AUS)
6 Pts

7. F. DUVAL (
5 Pts

8. A. MIKKELSEN (N)
4 Pts

9. D. SORDO (E)
3 Pts

10. T. GARDEMEISTER (FIN)
2 Pts


Manufacturers Championship:

1. BP-Ford Abu Dhabi WRT
26 Pts

2= Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team
16 Pts

2= Subaru WRT
16 Pts

4. Citroën Total WRT
15 Pts

5. Suzuki WRT
5 Pts

I'm a newb to WRC and motorsport in general, but I've been following the WRC this time around. Holy hell it's so exciting! It's amazing that the sport is not more popular (seeing how much feedback you're getting). I was so astonished every time someone ruined the entire Rally Sweden for themselves, but I guess that's rally for you... When Loeb got a speeding ticket...damn...

Yeah WRC is amazing stuff, though the best rallies are the ones when Loeb drops out. He just dominates so much that it makes it dull a lot of the time, which is a shame. I wish he'd move on to F1 or LMS or something.

I was a fan of Loeb before he became a regular winner, so was pleased to see him doing so well and to be honest it is getting boring now. But when he is winning there's often battles down the leaderboard.

I like to think of it as Loeb getting on and achieving something amazing here, records that won't be set for a long time and everyone else making the sport exciting. I think we'll see more Ford victories this year though and Latvala could be a future champion, probably Hirvonen too.

He's beaten all the records now, though, and now he just cruises. He really should move onto something that challenges him more. Not to sound like I don't begrudge him his amazing talent, and I do like him on a personal level (unlike Michael Schumacher, who he gets compared to a lot), but he's just bad for the sport.

There's just a few events he hasn't won, which I think he'd like to win, but it'll take something special to win in Finland.