Castrol wins Rally Sweden with Ford World Rally Team

Latvala and the Castrol EDGE Fiesta RS WRC were unstoppable in Sweden

Castrol EDGE Ford World Rally Team drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila won Rally Sweden by 16.6sec after a tense finale to the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship. Victory in a Ford Fiesta RS World Rally Car was Ford’s sixth consecutive success at the only true winter rally of the season.

Team-mates Petter Solberg and Chris Patterson finished fourth in another Fiesta RS WRC, losing a potential podium position when they hit the same rock, with the same outcome. It was the 50th world rally win for the Ford / M-Sport partnership since it started in 1997, and Fiesta RS WRCs filled four of the top five places.
Former Junior champion Patrik Sandell from Sweden declared himself very pleased with his best-ever result on home territory finishing eighth overall in the Castrol-backed MINI John Cooper Works WRC, run by Prodrive.

In the S2000 category Castrol-supported Volkswagen Motorsport’s Sébastien Ogier and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia took class victory with their ŠSkoda Fabia S2000, their team mates Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Fløene clinched third place.

Sebastien Loeb retained the championship lead by finishing sixth and winning the Power Stage. After sliding off the road and into a snow bank on Friday, losing over two minutes, Loeb just had to consolidate his points at Rally Sweden.

Round three of the championship takes crews to Mexico on March 8-12, with new stages, more competitive kilometres, a remote service halt and a monster 55-kilometre test on the final morning of the rally just some of the exciting changes to the itinerary this year.

Final Results : Rally of Sweden

Drivers’ Standings

Manufacturers’ Standings