2011 Rally Sweden

2011 Rally Sweden 59th Uddeholm Swedish Rally
Round 1 of the 2011 World Rally Championship Next event →
Host country	Sweden
Rally base	Karlstad, Sweden
Dates run	February 10 – 13 2011
Stages	22 (351.00 km; 218.10 miles)[1]
Stage surface	Snow- and Ice-covered gravel
Overall distance	2,059.89 km (1,279.96 miles)[1]
Statistics
Crews	44 at start, 34 at finish
Overall results
Overall winner	Mikko Hirvonen Ford World Rally Team

The 2011 Rally Sweden was the opening round of 2011 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 over 10–13 February, beginning with a Super Special Stage in the event's base town of Karlstad. The rally was also the first round of the Production World Rally Championship.

The rally saw a beginning to a new era in the World Rally Championship, with the previous generation of WRC machinery such as the Citroën C4 and the Ford Focus being phased out in favour of cars with a displacement of 1.6 litres (98 cu in). Citroën will use their DS3 model, and Ford will use the Fiesta RS over the course of the 2011 season.^[2] Also introduced for the 2011 season is the Power Stage, in which the final stage of each rally will award bonus points towards the championship standings. The fastest driver on the stage, will receive three points with two for the second-fastest and one for the third-fastest.^[2]

Mikko Hirvonen took the 13th WRC win of his career, and his first victory since winning the same event in 2010, having overhauled Mads Østberg midway through the second day.^[3] Østberg took his best result in the championship, finishing on the podium for the first time just 6.5 seconds behind Hirvonen.^[3] The podium was completed by another Ford driver, as Hirvonen's teammate Jari-Matti Latvala finished third, 34 seconds behind Hirvonen. Sébastien Ogier finished as the best Citroën driver in fourth place, and also picked up maximum bonus points with his victory on the first Power Stage of the season. Fellow Citroën driver Petter Solberg rounded out the top five places, despite losing his licence before the final stage due to a speeding infringement on Friday afternoon. As per the country's law, the Swedish Police Authority had given Solberg 48 hours grace before he could no longer drive after being caught going at 112 km/h (70 mph) in an area where the limit was 80 km/h (50 mph).^[4] With the ban coming into effect prior to the final stage, Solberg's co-driver Chris Patterson had to drive the stage.^[5]

In the supporting PWRC class, Martin Semerád took his first victory by over five minutes ahead of Yuriy Protasov.^[6]

Pos.	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time	Difference	Points
Overall
1.	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3:23:56.6	0.0	25
2.	Mads Østberg	Jonas Andersson	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3:24:03.1	6.5	18
3.	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3:24:30.6	34.0	16
4.	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Citroën DS3 WRC	3:24:44.3	47.7	15
5.	Petter Solberg	Chris Patterson	Citroën DS3 WRC	3:25:27.8	1:31.2	10
6.	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën DS3 WRC	3:26:26.9	2:30.3	10
7.	Per-Gunnar Andersson	Emil Axelsson	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3:30:18.6	6:22.0	6
8.	Kimi Räikkönen	Kaj Lindström	Citroën DS3 WRC	3:30:58.9	7:02.3	4
9.	Matthew Wilson	Scott Martin	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3:34:08.1	10:11.5	2
10.	Khalid Al Qassimi	Michael Orr	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3:34:27.7	10:31.1	1
PWRC
1. (16.)	Martin Semerád	Michal Ernst	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3:46:59.8	0.0	25
2. (19.)	Yuriy Protasov	Adrian Aftanaziv	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	3:52:17.1	5:17.3	18
3. (21.)	Nicolás Fuchs	Rubén Francisco García	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3:53:43.9	6:44.1	15
4. (22.)	Valeriy Gorban	Evgen Leonov	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3:53:49.3	6:49.5	12
5. (28.)	Gianluca Linari	Paolo Gregoriani	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	4:14:45.3	27:45.5	10
6. (31.)	Dmitry Tagirov	Anna Zavershinskaya	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	4:21:53.4	34:53.6	8
7. (32.)	Oleksandr Saliuk, Jr.	Pavlo Cherepin	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4:22:52.5	35:52.7	6
8. (33.)	Majed Al Shamsi	Khalid Al Kedi	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	4:29:52.6	42:52.8	4

Day	Stage	Time	Name	Length	Winner	Time	Avg. spd.	Rally leader
Leg 1 (10–11 Feb)	SS1	20:04	Karlstad Super Special Stage 1	1.90 km	Per-Gunnar Andersson	1:39.7	68.61 km/h	Per-Gunnar Andersson
	SS2	07:58	Vargåsen 1	24.63 km	Mads Østberg	14:41.9	100.54 km/h	Mads Østberg
	SS3	09:39	Likenäs 1	20.78 km	Per-Gunnar Andersson	12:10.1	102.46 km/h
	SS4	10:55	Løvhaugen 1	19.26 km	Mads Østberg	11:36.5	99.55 km/h
	SS5	14:13	Vargåsen 2	24.63 km	Per-Gunnar Andersson Mads Østberg	14:05.0	104.93 km/h
	SS6	15:54	Likenäs 2	20.78 km	Sébastien Ogier	11:39.5	106.94 km/h
	SS7	17:10	Løvhaugen 2	19.26 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	10:49.7	106.72 km/h
Leg 2 (12 Feb)	SS8	08:00	Lesjöfors 1	15.00 km	Sébastien Loeb	9:38.4	93.36 km/h
	SS9	09:01	Sågen 1	14.23 km	Petter Solberg	7:44.0	110.41 km/h
	SS10	10:06	Fredriksberg 1	18.15 km	Per-Gunnar Andersson	10:55.8	99.63 km/h
	SS11	11:08	Värmullsåsen 1	15.42 km	Petter Solberg	8:40.2	107.40 km/h	Mikko Hirvonen
	SS12	13:26	Lesjöfors 2	15.00 km	Sébastien Loeb	9:35.3	93.86 km/h
	SS13	14:27	Sågen 2	14.23 km	Sébastien Loeb	7:50.1	108.97 km/h
	SS14	15:32	Fredriksberg 2	18.15 km	Sébastien Ogier	11:02.2	98.67 km/h
	SS15	16:34	Värmullsåsen 2	15.42 km	Sébastien Loeb	8:45.7	105.60 km/h
	SS16	20:00	Karlstad Super Special Stage 2	1.90 km	Petter Solberg	1:38.9	69.16 km/h
Leg 3 (13 Feb)	SS17	07:51	Torntorp 1	19.21 km	Mikko Hirvonen	9:49.2	117.37 km/h
	SS18	08:43	Gustavsfors 1	4.16 km	Mikko Hirvonen	2:22.1	105.39 km/h
	SS19	09:37	Rämmen 1	22.76 km	Mikko Hirvonen	11:55.3	114.55 km/h
	SS20	12:09	Torntorp 2	19.21 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	10:00.0	115.26 km/h
	SS21	13:31	Rämmen 2	22.76 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	12:12.9	111.80 km/h
	SS22	15:08	Gustavsfors 2 (Power Stage)	4.16 km	Sébastien Ogier	2:22.7	104.95 km/h

The first ever "Power stage", a live televised 4.16 km short stage at the end of the rally, was held near the village of Gustavsfors.

Pos	Driver	Time	Diff.	Avg. speed	Points
1	Sébastien Ogier	2:22.7	0.0	104.95 km/h	3
2	Sébastien Loeb	2:23.0	+0.3	104.73 km/h	2
3	Jari-Matti Latvala	2:23.4	+0.7	104.44 km/h	1

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Mikko Hirvonen 25 2 Mads Ostberg 18 3 Jari-Matti Latvala 16 4 Sebastien Ogier 15 5 Petter Solberg 10 6 Sébastien Loeb 10 7 Per-Gunnar Andersson 6 8 Kimi Räikkönen 4 9 Matthew Wilson 2 10 Khalid Al-Qassimi 1

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 BP Ford WRT 40 2 Citroën WRT 22 3 Stobart Ford 18 4 Ice 1 Racing 8 5 Team Abu Dhabi 6 6 FERM Power Tools WRT 4 7 Monster WRT 2

• Results at eWRC.com