Rovanperra beats the odds

HARRI Rovanpera posted his maiden WRC win on the International Swedish Rally on Sunday after battling overnight snowfalls and near blizzard conditions.

Rovanpera was expected to lose time on the final day as the first car into the stages, but the Peugeot driver defied the odds and won by almost 30 seconds from second-placed Mitsubishi driver Thomas Radstrom. Ford's Carlos Sainz was third.

Tommi Makinen was second at the start of the final day, seven seconds behind countryman Rovanpera and the four-time world champion was determined to push to the end, although he admitted catching his fellow Finn was never going to be easy.

Makinen's rally came to an early end as the Monte Carlo winner rolled his Mitsubishi just a couple of kilometres into the final stage.

"We simply made a mistake and went off the road," said Makinen. "It was quite a fast section and the car was completely off in a snowbank and there was no way to recover. It's very disappointing, obviously." Brits Richard Burns and Colin McRae both continued to storm up the field on the final leg and were the dominant duo on the event with Burns setting the fastest time on all five of today's stages and McRae took seven stage wins in all.

But it was all in vain - although McRae did snag a couple of manufacturer points for Ford - and neither could recoup enough of the time lost while stuck in snow banks on the first day.

Had they escaped the clutches of the snow, McRae and Burns would most likely have been fighting for first and second spots with Rovanpera a distant third.

"We're very happy because for the second year in a row we have taken our first win of the season in Sweden," said Peugeot boss Corrado Provera. "We have also won with a talent scouted by [our team boss] Jean-Pierre Nicolas." Rovanperra was tipped by Nicolas as a potential winner before the event, but the 34-year-old was not one of the French manufacturer's nominated drivers to score points.

With world champion Marcus Gronholm out on the first day with headgasket failure and Didier Auriol, who was suffering from Bronchitus throughout the event, falling foul with transmission failure today, last year's manufacturers' champions is still yet to trouble the scorers. Toni Gardemeister finished fourth in a Grifone-run 206 WRC.

"We have had two rallies and not yet scored a manufacturers' point," continued Provera. "We still have a lot of work to do, but we know that when our cars do finish, they are at the top." Ford picked up points from Sainz and the charging McRae who made it into the top 10 in the closing stages, but was denied the chance to overhaul Kenneth Eriksson's Hyundai when the Scotsman's Focus WRC became jammed in sixth gear on the final Hagfors stage.

"After losing so much time on the first day and having to come from so far back, it's quite satisfying to score points for the team," said McRae. "That was my only target. It was an exciting rally and during our run of fastest times, we were having fun, driving quickly in superb conditions and taking time back from everyone." Makinen's retirement came as a great relief to his rivals. Had he finished second then he would have been well ahead on points after two rounds. Now the teams go to Portugal in one month's time with Sainz, Makinen and Rovanpera at the head of the drivers' standings.

Results: 1 Harri Rovanpera (FIN)/Risto Pietilainen (FIN), Peugeot 206 WRC, 3h27m01.1s 2 Thomas Radstrom (S)/Tina Thorner (S), Mitsubishi Carisma GT, +0m27.9s 3 Carlos Sainz (E)/Luis Moya(E), Ford Focus RS WRC*, +0m37.0s 4 Toni Gardemeister (FIN)/ Paavo Lukander (FIN), Peugeot 206 WRC, +2m05.3s 5 Francois Delecour (F)/Daniel Grataloup (F), Ford Focus RS WRC, +2m25.2s 6 Petter Solberg (NOR)/Philip Mills(GB), Subaru Impreza WRC, +2m48.5s 7 Daniel Carlsson (S)/ Benny Melander (S). Toyota Corolla WRC, +3m18.2s 8 Kenneth Eriksson (S)/Staffan Parmander (S), Hyundai Accent WRC*, +3.35.8s 9 Colin McRae (GB)/Nicky Grist(GB), Ford Focus RS WRC*, +4.35.4s 10 Bruno Thiry (B)/Stephane Prevot(B), Skoda Octavia WRC*, +5m.23.6s