Sandell leads the Swedes on home territory

Patrik Sandell is the leading Swedish driver at the end of the opening day, on his debut in the MINI John Cooper Works WRC. The former Junior World Rally Champion finished eighth after the opening day of the event, which ran mostly through Norway with good snow cover.

“It was a fantastic day in the car,” said Sandell, who intends to contest more world championship rallies this year with MINI. “I just love the MINI. The balance is great and the team is so professional; it feels I am coming home. This is the best car I have ever driven and the best team I have ever driven for.

"It’s almost been a perfect day. At the end was not good. We took one spare for the last loop and we lost a lot of studs on the penultimate stage, so for the last stage we had one tyre that almost had no studs at all. But we’re still here and we can fight tomorrow.”

The Super 2000 category is led tonight by P-G Andersson, who was the overall leader of Rally Sweden at one point last year. Andersson is just outside the top 10 in his PROTON Satria, having enjoyed a perfect day.

But the day was not so good for former European touring car champion Richard Goransson, also driving a MINI. The Swede dropped time with fuel pressure problems and is classified 35th overnight.