Swede dreams alive for Latvala

Jari-Matti Latvala’s bid to claim his maiden World Rally victory remains on course after he consolidated his advantage over Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen on the second day of the Swedish Rally.

The 22-year-old suffered a scare this morning when he hit a stone in his Focus but kept his cool in slippery conditions to marginally increase his lead over his fellow Finn to 49.8 seconds at the end of leg two.

Britain’s Matthew Wilson held on to fifth position in the Stobart Ford despite a tough day in the Hagfors region that saw him fall over four minutes behind the leader.

With reigning champion Sebastien Loeb out of contention after he rolled his Citroen C4 yesterday, Latvala found himself with an unexpected 48.2-second lead at the end of day one.

And he immediately set about adding to that advantage over the opening two stages today as his lead grew to more than a minute over the off-key Hirvonen.

The Citroens dominated the opening stages of the day, however, with Loeb – back in the rally under SupeRally rules – winning stage nine, and his team-mate Dani Sordo claiming the honours on stage 10.

Loeb took the win on stage 11 but retired from the rally once again after suffering engine trouble.

Latvala conceded eight seconds to team-mate Hirvonen over stage 11 after hitting a stone, and the Finn admitted he was lucky to survive the scare that came at the end of a tough morning’s work.

“It was difficult being first on the road through the opening stage [today] because there was a lot of slush for the first three kilometres and we did a lot of moving from snowbank to snowbank,” he said.

“Then it changed to gravel and while the grip was great, the gravel wasn’t good for the tyre studs. On the last stage I hit a stone with the front right wheel about 1.5km from the start and was lucky not to puncture.”

Stobart Ford’s Gigi Galli sat third at the end of day two, over a minute ahead of Subaru’s Petter Solberg.

Wilson’s grip on fifth place is a little less secure heading into the final day.

Norway’s Andreas Mikkelsen (Ford) completed leg two just 11 seconds behind the Briton after taking chunks of time out of Wilson on the afternoon’s stages.

And Mikkelsen was upbeat on his chances of catching the Stobart Ford man tomorrow.

“I’ve been going flat out and it’s been a good day,” he said. “I’ll keep pushing tomorrow to see if I can do it.”

Wilson added: “Andreas is going very hard and I’ve just been struggling to get into a rhythm.

“I had a big hit and thought I had a puncture, so I took it easy for the next couple of corners and it turned out to be okay.

“We’re still here, though, and we’ll be in the fight tomorrow.”

Today’s 12th stage at Horssjon was cancelled by race organisers after the ongoing mild weather left the route without a sufficient covering of snow for the drivers to compete on studded tyres.