Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala continues to lead the field in the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship. The Ford driver has marginally extended his advantage and now has 49.8 seconds in hand to team-mate Mikko Hirvonen. Italian Gigi Galli has moved up the leaderboard into third, overhauling Henning Solberg to claim the final provisional podium position.

Today’s action was scheduled to take in two loops of three stages covering 120.88 competitive kilometres. However, due to the mild weather the 12th stage of the event was cancelled. Citroën drivers Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Sordo dominated, winning four of the five stages between them. Loeb however was forced into retirement with an engine problem this afternoon, and team-mate Sordo – who started with a five minute penalty for changing his damaged Rallye Monte-Carlo engine before this event – is seventh.

Latvala has controlled his pace and, after building such an advantage yesterday, reaped the rewards and had a trouble-free run. Similarly, Hirvonen has taken no risks, content to collect a potential eight points for second position. Gigi Galli, in only his second outing in the Ford Focus, is delighted with third, having overhauled Henning Solberg in the first stage when the Norwegian collected a puncture. In the thick of the battle, Solberg then crashed into retirement two stages later. Barring problems, Galli’s position is safe with Subaru’s Petter Solberg over a minute adrift in fourth. Matthew Wilson has climbed to sixth but the Briton needs to push hard to maintain his slim advantage over Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen. Behind Sordo in seventh, Suzuki’s Toni Gardemeister rounds off the top eight after going off the road and then experiencing hydraulic problems. Mads Østberg, sixth last night, has dropped to 14th after going off the road this morning.
 
Uddeholm Swedish Rally - Results after Day 2
 

1	Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC	2 hr 03 min 53.7sec
2	Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	2 hr 04 min 43.5sec
3	Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini	Ford Focus RS WRC	2 hr 05 min 29.6sec
4	Petter Solberg/Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC	2 hr 06 min 34.6sec
5	Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin	Ford Focus RS WRC	2 hr 08 min 31.3sec
6	Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene	Ford Focus RS WRC	2 hr 08 min 41.8sec
7	Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti	Citroën C4 WRC	2 hr 10 min 45.6sec
8	Toni Gardemeister/Tomi Tuominen	Suzuki SX4	2 hr 12 min 43.0sec