Latvala and Hirvonen change the leader position during the afternoon session of day 1. After stage 8 Latvala lead with 2.6 seconds ahead Mikko Hirvonen.
Engine problems in stage 8 for Daniel Sordo cause him serious delay and losing any chances for podium. The bonnet of the car of Sordo is open and there is some fluid under the car. It is not sure whether he is able to restart the rally at all.
Sebastien Loeb slid into a snowbank and had to wait for spectators to push him back onto the road in stage 7. He lost almost two minutes in stage 7. His Citroen is undamaged.
Results after SS 8:
1. J. Latvala 1:12:17.9
2. M. Hirvonen +2.6
3. M. Ostberg +26.5
4. P.Solberg +27.4
5. E. Novikov +41.7
6. H. Solberg +1:40.0
7. P. Sandell +1:48.7
8. S. Loeb +2:06.6
Drivers comments:
M. Hirvonen: "That was not the best one. I did some changes to the car and it was not as good as before, so I took it a little bit steady.
Jari-Matti will be in front of me a little bit now, but it's okay, there's still a long way to go."
S. Loeb: "I didn't have any reason to take big risks. We lost too much in the stage before.
We had a good rhythm. We'll try to catch the drivers in front, but the task is now very big. It's not maximum attack."

 

Mikko Hirvonen takes the lead by the former teammate Jari-Matti Latvala. Mikko is definitely the best snow driver as he was the last winner with Ford while with Citroen he again takes the lead. Mikko was 3.5 seconds faster than Latvala in stage 5 the 20.97 km Finnskogen.
Results after SS 5:
1. M. Hirvonen 44:17.7
2. J. Latvala +2.9
3. M. Ostberg +10.3
4. S. Loeb +12.7
5. P. Solberg +14.6
6. D. Sordo +21.8
Driver’s comments:
Hirvonen: "We are maybe finding a little bit of feeling with the car. It's good, the stages are in surprisingly good condition and I enjoyed that one. I'm having a good time."
Latvala: I can't get clean runs - every stage I make little mistakes. I'm trying to get a balance with the driving. We'll have a think about it at service and see if we can do anything."
Ostberg: "It was a good stage for sure, we tried to push back here. Hirvonen is going very well so it's difficult to keep up with his pace. I didn't want to take any risks - I'm sure I can give a little but more but then it's not guaranteed I will finish."
Till the end of day 1 remains 5 stages.
 

The Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala is the rally leader after SS4. During the stage 3 Sebastien Loeb set the best time followed by Latvala at +0.2 seconds. In stage 4 Mikko Hirvonen the teammate of Loeb is with the best time while the rally leader by stage 2 Mads Ostberg moving to third position overall.
Results after SS4:
1. J. Latvala 32:19.9
2. M. Hirvonen + +0.6
3. M. Ostberg +9.0
4. S. Loeb +10.8
5. P. Solberg +12.0
6. D. Sordo +18.7
Drivers comments:
M. Hirvonen: "You really need to push hard to fight against those Ford boys, there is a long way to go, but we have to stay in the fight and we're there, so that's good."
P. Solberg: "We had a spin and got stuck and lost maybe 15s. We need to just calm down and not think about it."
M. Ostberg: "I'm struggling with understeer. This was another field stage and the last one was the same. I haven't tested in these conditions and it seems like the set-up doesn't work. Now we'll go back out in the forests on the nice stages again so hopefully we can take some time back."
 

Mads Ostberg takes the rally leader after the first stage for the day. The SS 2 Mitandersfors 27.07 km the longest stage in the rally is wins by Mads Ostberg followed by Latvala (+0.0) and the former teammate Mikko Hirvonen (Citroen DS 3 WRC) at +0.8 seconds. Dani Sordo lost the leader position after the disappointed seventh place at 12.7 seconds.
Rally Sweden - Results after SS 2:
1. M. Ostberg 15:47.5
2. J. Latvala +1.9
3. M. Hirvonen +2.0
4. P. Solberg +5.4
5. D. Sordo +12.4
6. S. Loeb +14.5
7. E. Novikov +15.7
 

Dani Sordo win the opening night stage of Rally Sweden 2012. The stage Karlstad with length of 1.9 km is the first and only one for today. The Spanish driver for WRC Team MINI Portugal set the best time.
Standing after SS 1:
1. D. Sordo 1:34.2
2. M. Ostberg +0.3
3. O. Tanak +0.6
4. S. Loeb +1.2
5. P. Solberg +1.2
6. M. Hirvonen +1.5
7. J. Latvala +2.2
8. P. Sandell +3.0
The first stage tomorrow starts at 8:04 local time.

FIA confirm 2012 entries in WRC as 3 manufactures and 4 others.
Manufactures:
Citroen Total World Rally Team
Ford World Rally Team
WRC Team MINI Portugal

Rest Teams in WRC 2012
Adapta World Rally Team
Citroen Junior World Rally Team
M-Sport Ford World Rally Team
Qatar World Rally Team

MINI WRC Team keeps the 26 points by Rally Monte Carlo.

Next weekend is the second round of World Rally Championship - Rally Sweden. The round is the only one with snow surface. The rally challenge starts on February 9th till February 12th 2012. The rally headquarter is based in Karlstad, located 300 km west by the Sweden capital Stockholm.

Rally details:
24 Special Stages
360 competitive kilometres
The longest rally stage is Mitandersfors schedule as stage 2 27.07 km.
Last Rally Winner: Mikko Hirvonen Ford Fiesta RS WRC 2011.

Pictures by Mikko Hirvonen (Citroen DS3 WRC) test in Sweden.