Latvala triumphs in Sweden

Jari-Matti Latvala has clinched Rally Sweden victory, as he made amends for his Monte Carlo calamity with a superb drive on the snow.

The Ford team leader pulled clear of a close-fought early lead battle in which Mads Ostberg, Petter Solberg, Sebastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen all featured, and for most of the weekend was in a straight head to head with his former team-mate Hirvonen.

Latvala eventually managed to build a cushion over the Citroen, and had big enough lead that even a puncture three stages from the end today did not cost him the lead.

Hirvonen claimed second, with Ostberg third after a late puncture dropped Solberg to fourth.

A trip off the road, a spin and a puncture conspired to leave Loeb back in sixth behind the impressive Evgeny Novikov.

SS24: Loeb salvages Power Stage win

Sebastien Loeb may have only been able to finish sixth overall in Rally Sweden, but he picked up three handy extra points for his 2012 FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia title campaign by winning the Power Stage.

The world champion had earlier hinted that he would not be risking everything on the final stage as he suspected there would be too many rocks on its surface. But when he realised the Hagfors test was holding up better than he had anticipated, he decided to press on and ended up fastest by 4.9 seconds.

"I tried to still push in this one, "said Loeb. "It was not much worse than the first pass so I had to try."

Second place Power Stage points went to Petter Solberg, despite the Norwegian picking up his second puncture of the day.

"I tried to push very hard on the power stage but had another puncture unfortunately," said Solberg.

The final Power Stage point was collected by Jari-Matti Latvala in the other works Ford, as he took his score for Sweden up to 26 by also clinching the outright victory.

An impressive run from Czech National Ford driver Martin Prokop saw him just miss out on a bonus point in fourth on the stage times, ahead of outright podium finisher Mads Ostberg (Adapta Ford).

Overall second-place finisher Mikko Hirvonen took it easy over the Power Stage was only seventh.