Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Fiesta WRC) leads day 1 of the Rally Sweden after a fantastic battle with his former team mate Mikko Hirvonen (Citroen DS3 WRC).
Latvala and Hirvonen set a blazing pace during this first day of the event, with Latvala taking the advantage thanks to a good tires choice in the second loop in the afternoon.
The Ford driver enjoyed a 17.2-second lead at the end of the day, while Hirvonen under pressure from Ford's second driver Petter Solberg, who lost about 15 seconds after a spin in the morning.
Mads Ostberg (Ford Fiesta), second in last year's Rally Sweden, was an early leader before he struggled with brake issues which dropped him thirty seconds behind the leader.
Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) is more than a two minutes down to Latvala after he went off the road during the afternoon.
Dani Sordo (MINI) was already forced to retire after an engine failure.
Rally Sweden - Classification after day 1 :
1. Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) in 1h22mn16''8
2. Mikko Hirvonen (Citroen) +17''2
3. Petter Solberg (Ford) +20''0
4. Mads Ostberg (Ford) +31''6
5. Evgeny Novikov (Ford) +1mn11''5
6. Henning Solberg (Ford) +1mn46''8
7. Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) +2mn09''7
8. Patrik Sandell (MINI) +2mn16''3
Latvala and Hirvonen set a blazing pace during this first day of the event, with Latvala taking the advantage thanks to a good tires choice in the second loop in the afternoon.
The Ford driver enjoyed a 17.2-second lead at the end of the day, while Hirvonen under pressure from Ford's second driver Petter Solberg, who lost about 15 seconds after a spin in the morning.
Mads Ostberg (Ford Fiesta), second in last year's Rally Sweden, was an early leader before he struggled with brake issues which dropped him thirty seconds behind the leader.
Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) is more than a two minutes down to Latvala after he went off the road during the afternoon.
Dani Sordo (MINI) was already forced to retire after an engine failure.
Rally Sweden - Classification after day 1 :
1. Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) in 1h22mn16''8
2. Mikko Hirvonen (Citroen) +17''2
3. Petter Solberg (Ford) +20''0
4. Mads Ostberg (Ford) +31''6
5. Evgeny Novikov (Ford) +1mn11''5
6. Henning Solberg (Ford) +1mn46''8
7. Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) +2mn09''7
8. Patrik Sandell (MINI) +2mn16''3