The Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports crew of Kristian Sohlberg and Kaj
Lindström was forced into retirement this morning after transmission
problems resulted in them going over the permitted time.

"This morning we couldn?t fix a transmission problem in the time
allowed, so Kristian was late at the time control and then out of the
rally", commented MMSP Technical Director Mario Fornaris. "It?s a pity
for us because we were expecting to have more information from this rally,
but overall the feeling between Monte-Carlo and here is good; we have made
some improvements during the rally. Now we are looking forward to
México; we have a gravel test next week with parts to fix the problems
we?ve had here".

The team is now focused on an intense period of testing and development
ahead of the third round of the series, Corona Rally México (March
11-14). None of the World Championship contenders has previously contested
this new addition to the series and it is the first gravel event of the
season.

News from our rivals

Sixty crews left Karlstad early this morning for today?s eight stages
and 152.40 competitive kilometers based around the service park in Hagfors.
Overnight snow fall certainly made the scenery look more akin to how it
should, and in some places up to 10 centimeters of snow undoubtedly slowed
the cars running first on the road as they swept it away for the following
crews.

It has been a drama-filled day with a number of the leading crews going off
the road, although the most notable casualty of the day was overnight
leader Markko Märtin. The Estonian crashed in stage 11, going off the
road, all-but taking a wheel off the Focus and crushing his dreams of
becoming the first non-Nordic driver to ever win the Swedish Rally. Rallye
Monte-Carlo victor Sébastien Loeb has therefore assumed the lead with
Marcus Gronhölm climbing from sixth to second, despite not feeling
totally happy with the handling of the Peugeot 307. Petter Solberg
maintains third while Janne Tuohino is upholding Ford honors, the Finn
fourth in the second Focus registered to score points. Further down the
leaderboard, Carlos Sainz, Mikko Hirvonen and François Duval all lost
time off the road, Duval the biggest loser plummeting to 53rd overall after
stage nine. Freddy Loix was also forced into retirement with engine
problems.

The final leg of the Swedish Rally takes the crews over two loops of three
stages totaling 96.60 competitive kilometers, before returning for the
finish in Karlstad at 16:38 hrs.


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