Twenty-two year old Jari-Matti Latvala claimed a historic win in the Uddeholm Swedish Rally by becoming the youngest driver to win a round of the FIA World Rally Championship. The Finn, and co-driver Miikka Antilla, led the event for all but one stage and take maximum points in only their second event with the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team. Mikko Hirvonen, in the sister Ford Focus, finished second overall with Stobart VK M-Sport Ford driver Gigi Galli taking third.
In the FIA World Rally Championship, Mikko Hirvonen has a six point lead over Sébastien Loeb and Latvala after two of the most specialised events in the series. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, reigning World Champion BP Ford Abu Dhabi moves ahead by 10 points.
Today’s action was scheduled to cover six stages and 97.22 competitive kilometres. However, the organisers were forced to cancel one stage, again due to the mild weather conditions. Latvala started the day with a 49.8 second lead and was able to focus on simply reaching the finish; such was his advantage over Hirvonen. His winning margin was 58.3 seconds. Galli finished on the podium for the second time in his career and in only his second event in a Ford Focus.
The only retirement during the final day was Britain’s Matthew Wilson, who was forced out with a throttle problem. Henning Solberg - who restarted after crashing yesterday - claimed all the stage victories.
Uddeholm Swedish Rally – Final Results (subject to final scrutineering)
| 1 | Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila | Ford Focus RS WRC | 2 hr 46 min 41.2sec |
| 2 | Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen | Ford Focus RS WRC | 2 hr 47 min 39.5sec |
| 3 | Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini | Ford Focus RS WRC | 2 hr 49 min 04.4sec |
| 4 | Petter Solberg/Phil Mills | Subaru Impreza WRC | 2 hr 49 min 40.6sec |
| 5 | Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene | Ford Focus RS WRC | 2 hr 52 min 27.2sec |
| 6 | Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti | Citroën C4 WRC | 2 hr 53 min 54.3sec |
| 7 | Toni Gardemeister/Tomi Tuominen | Suzuki SX4 | 2 hr 57 min 16.5sec |
| 8 | Juho Hänninen/Mikko Markkula | Mitsubishi Lancer | 2 hr 59 min 08.7sec |
FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 2 of 15 rounds)
| Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) | 16 points |
| Sébastien Loeb (F) | 10 points |
| Jari-Matti Latvala (FIN) | 10 points |
| Gigi Galli (I) | 9 points |
| Petter Solberg (N) | 9 points |
| Chris Atkinson (AUS) | 6 points |
| François Duval (B) | 5 points |
| Andreas Mikkelsen (N) | 4 points |
| Dani Sordo (E) | 3 points |
| Jean-Marie Cuoq (F) | 2 points |
| Toni Gardemeister (FIN) | 2 points |
| Per-Gunnar Andersson (S) | 1 point |
| Juno Hänninen (FIN) | 1 point |
FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 2 of 15 rounds)
| BP-Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team | 26 points |
| Subaru World Rally Team | 16 points |
| Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team | 16 points |
| Citroën Total World Rally Team | 15 points |
| Suzuki World Rally Team | 5 points |