Marcus Grönholm, three-time winner of the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, continues to head the leaderboard after the second day of competition. The Ford driver once again dominated the leg, winning five of the seven stages to increase his lead to 25.1 seconds with 90 kilometres of competition remaining on Sunday.

Nearest rival Sébastien Loeb (Citroën Xsara) claimed the remaining two stage victories, but was otherwise unable to match the pace of the Finn. He overnights in second. The battle for third position is as fierce as ever, with Mitsubishi Lancer privateers Daniel Carlsson and Gigi Galli trading positions throughout the day. While Galli slips from third to fourth overnight, the Italian is however just three-tenths of a second behind the local talent.

Former FIA World Rally Champion Petter Solberg had another tough day, the Norwegian Subaru driver losing a minute and 20 seconds when he went off the road in the penultimate stage and hit a snow bank. He then hit a post hidden in the snow in the final stage, damaging the steering and dropping yet more time. He holds 14th overnight. Brother Henning, driving a Peugeot 307 WRC, also went off the road. After hitting a snow bank and sliding down the road upside down, he and co-driver Cato Menkerud were forced to drive the rest of the stage and liaison section back to service in sub-zero temperatures with no windscreen and the car full of snow. They drop just one position to eighth.

The third leg of the Uddeholm Swedish Rally takes the crews to the final six stages before the finish back in Karlstad on Sunday afternoon.

Uddeholm Swedish Rally – Results after Leg 2

1. Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen  Ford Focus RS WRC 2 hr 21 min 51.9sec
2. Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena  Citroën Xsara WRC  2 hr 22 min 17.0sec
3. Daniel Carlsson/Bo Holmstrand  Mitsubishi Lancer WRC 2 hr 24 min 24.6sec
4. Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini  Mitsubishi Lancer WRC 2 hr 24 min 24.9sec
5. Mattias Ekström/Stefan Bergmann Škoda Fabia WRC  2 hr 25 min 20.0sec
6. Janne Tuohino/Risto Pietilainen  Citroën Xsara WRC  2 hr 25 min 20.1sec