2008 Swedish Rally

The 2008 Swedish Rally, officially 57th Uddeholm Swedish Rally, was the second round of 2008 World Rally Championship season. It was the season's first and only event held on snow- and ice-covered gravel roads. The rally took place during February 7–10, beginning with Super Special Stage placed in rallybase, Karlstad. The rally was also the first round of Production Car World Rally Championship this season.

2008 Swedish Rally
57th Uddeholm Swedish Rally
Round 2 of the 2008 World Rally Championship
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Host country Sweden
Rally baseKarlstad, Sweden
Dates runFebruary 7 – 10 2008
Stages20 (340.24 km; 211.42 miles)
Stage surfaceSnow/Ice-covered gravel
Overall distance1,440.08 km (894.82 miles)
Results
Overall winner Jari-Matti Latvala
BP-Ford World Rally Team
Crews61 at start, 49 at finish

Even though it snowed before the rally, eliminating the threat of calling the event off, the mild temperatures caused cancellation of stages 12 and 18, shortening the overall competitive kilometers count.[1][2]

The rally was won by BP Ford World Rally Team's 22-year-old Jari-Matti Latvala. With his debut win, Latvala became the youngest winner in the history of the World Rally Championship, breaking Henri Toivonen's record from the 1980 RAC Rally.[3] Latvala's teammate and compatriot Mikko Hirvonen was second and Stobart VK M-Sport Ford's Gigi Galli completed an all-Ford podium. Subaru World Rally Team's Petter Solberg was fourth, followed by Andreas Mikkelsen, Dani Sordo, Toni Gardemeister, Juho Hänninen, Mads Østberg and Jari Ketomaa. Fifth-placed Matthew Wilson ran into technical problems with throttle on the penultimate stage and had to retire.[4][5] Sébastien Loeb crashed out and rolled his car while running third, then retired again, after restarting under SupeRally and winning two stages, because of the damaged engine.[6] Henning Solberg inherited the third place, but later suffered a puncture causing him to slip further down and then crashed while running fourth and was forced to retire for the second day;[7] after rejoining the fight under SupeRally format Norwegian was the fastest driver on day three, winning all the remaining stages.

Results
Pos. Driver Co-driver Car Time Difference Points
WRC
1. Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka Anttila Ford Focus RS WRC 07 2:46:41.2 10
2. Mikko Hirvonen Jarmo Lehtinen Ford Focus RS WRC 07 2:47:39.5 +58.3 8
3. Gigi Galli Giovanni Bernacchini Ford Focus RS WRC 07 2:49:04.4 2:23.2 6
4. Petter Solberg Phil Mills Subaru Impreza WRC2007 2:49:40.6 2:59.4 5
5. Andreas Mikkelsen Ola Floene Ford Focus RS WRC 06 2:52:27.2 5:46.0 4
6. Dani Sordo Marc Marti Citroën C4 WRC 2:53:54.3 [1] 7:13.1 3
7. Toni Gardemeister Tomi Tuominen Suzuki SX4 WRC 2:57:16.5 10:35.3 2
8. Juho Hänninen Mikko Markkula Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 2:59:08.7 12:27.5 1
[1] — Including 5 minute penalty for replacing the damaged engine after malfunction during 2008 Monte Carlo Rally.[8]
PCWRC
1. (8.) Juho Hänninen Mikko Markkula Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 2:59:08.7 10
2. (10.) Jari Ketomaa Miika Teiskonen Subaru Impreza WRX STi N14 3:00:31.9 1:23.2 8
3. (11.) Patrik Sandell Emil Axelsson Peugeot 207 S2000 3:01:00.5 1:51.8 6
4. (12.) Martin Prokop Jan Tománek Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 3:01:11.7 2:03.0 5
5. (14.) Uwe Nittel Detlef Ruf Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 3:03:04.0 3:55.3 4
6. (15.) Toshihiro Arai Glenn MacNeall Subaru Impreza WRX STi 3:03:31.6 4:22.9 3
7. (17.) Armindo Araujo Miguel Ramalho Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 3:05:13.9 6:05.2 2
8. (19.) Bernardo Sousa Carlos Magalhães Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 3:07:07.3 7:58.6 1

Special stages

All dates and times are CET (UTC+1).

Day Stage Time Name Length Winner Time Avg. spd. Rally leader
1 (7 FEB) SS1 20:04 SSS Karlstad 1 1.90 km P. Solberg 1:28.9 76.5 km/h P. Solberg
2
(8 FEB)		 SS2 09:34 Stensjön 1 15.50 km J. Latvala 7:24.0 125.7 km/h J. Latvala
SS3 10:44 Bjälverud 1 21.58 km J. Latvala 10:33.7 122.5 km/h
SS4 11:23 Mangen 1 22.09 km J. Latvala 12:20.7 107.4 km/h
SS5 13:25 Stensjön 2 15.50 km J. Latvala 7:22.3 126.2 km/h
SS6 14:35 Bjälverud 2 21.58 km J. Latvala 10:32.4 122.8 km/h
SS7 15:14 Mangen 2 22.09 km J. Latvala 12:21.2 107.3 km/h
SS8 18:00 SSS Karlstad 2 1.90 km G. Galli 1:28.2 77.6 km/h
3
(9 FEB)		 SS9 08:25 Horssjön 1 14.89 km S. Loeb 9:18.1 96.0 km/h
SS10 09:38 Hagfors 1 20.92 km D. Sordo 11:45.8 106.7 km/h
SS11 10:41 Vargåsen 1 24.63 km S. Loeb 13:49.1 106.9 km/h
SS12 13:04 Horssjön 2 14.89 km Cancelled [1]
SS13 14:17 Hagfors 2 20.92 km D. Sordo 11:30.1 109.1 km/h
SS14 15:20 Vargåsen 2 24.63 km M. Hirvonen 13:32.5 109.1 km/h
4
(10 FEB)		 SS15 08:08 Ullen 1 16.25 km H. Solberg 8:21.7 116.6 km/h
SS16 09:13 Lesjöfors 1 10.49 km H. Solberg 5:54.5 106.5 km/h
SS17 09:45 Rämmen 1 21.87 km H. Solberg 11:14.4 116.7 km/h
SS18 11:21 Ullen 2 16.25 km Cancelled [2]
SS19 12:26 Lesjöfors 2 10.49 km H. Solberg 5:43.8 109.7 km/h
SS20 12:58 Rämmen 2 21.87 km H. Solberg 11:07.1 118.0 km/h

Championship standings after the event

Drivers' championship
Pos Driver MON
 SWE
 MEX
 ARG
 JOR
 ITA
 GRC
 TUR
 FIN
 GER
 NZL
 ESP
 FRA
 JPN
 GBR
  Pts 
1 Mikko Hirvonen 2 2 16
2 Jari-Matti Latvala 12 1 10
Sébastien Loeb 1 Ret. 10
4 Gigi Galli 6 3 9
Petter Solberg 5 4 9
6 Chris Atkinson 3 21 6
7 François Duval 4 5
8 Andreas Mikkelsen 5 4
9 Dani Sordo 11 6 3
10 Jean-Marie Cuoq 7 2
Toni Gardemeister Ret. 7 2
12 Per-Gunnar Andersson 8 Ret. 1
Juho Hänninen 8 1
Pos Driver MON
 SWE
 MEX
 ARG
 JOR
 ITA
 GRC
 TUR
 FIN
 GER
 NZL
 ESP
 FRA
 JPN
 GBR
 Pts
Key
Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green Points finish
Blue Non-points finish
Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple Did not finish (Ret)
Black Excluded (EX)
Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
Cancelled (C)
Blank Withdrew entry from
the event (WD)

Manufacturers' championship
Rank Driver Event Total
points
MON
 SWE
 MEX
 ARG
 JOR
 ITA
 GRC
 TUR
 FIN
 GER
 NZL
 ESP
 FRA
 JPN
 GBR
1 BP Ford World Rally Team 818------------- 26
2 Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team 88------------- 16
Subaru World Rally Team 106------------- 16
4 Citroën Total World Rally Team 114------------- 15
5 Suzuki World Rally Team 23------------- 5
6 Munchi's Ford World Rally Team ------------- 0

Production championship

Points table:[9]

Pos Driver SWE
 ARG
 GRC
 TUR
 FIN
 NZL
 JPN
 GBR
  Pts 
1 Juho Hänninen 1 10
2 Jari Ketomaa 2 8
3 Patrik Sandell 3 6
4 Martin Prokop 4 5
5 Uwe Nittel 5 4
6 Toshihiro Arai 6 3
7 Armindo Araújo 7 2
8 Bernardo Sousa 8 1
Pos Driver SWE
 ARG
 GRC
 TUR
 FIN
 NZL
 JPN
 GBR
 Pts

References
  1. "Swedish Rally: SS12 - cancelled". Crash.net. 2008-02-09. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  2. "Second stage cancelled". Crash.net. 2008-02-10. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  3. "Latvala claims historic Swedish win". Autosport. Archived from the original on 11 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
  4. "NEWS FLASH: Wilson Jr loses fifth". Crash.net. 2008-02-10. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  5. "Throttle issue robs Wilson Jr". Crash.net. 2008-02-11. Archived from the original on 15 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  6. "Loeb: Engine was on its last legs". Crash.net. 2008-02-09. Archived from the original on 12 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  7. "NEWS FLASH: Henning goes off". Crash.net. 2008-02-09. Archived from the original on 12 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  8. "Engine blow for Sordo". Crash.net. 2008-02-07. Archived from the original on 11 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  9. "2008 Production WRC Classification". Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
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