Jari-Matti Latvala belatedly got his World Rally Championship challenge under way as he held on to win Rally Sweden. The 26-year-old Finn had an advantage of more than 30 seconds over compatriot Mikko Hirvonen's Citroen at one point in the final stage, but was made to sweat when he suffered a puncture. That saw his lead cut to eight seconds, but he quickly re-established his dominance to win by 16.6 seconds. The Ford driver also claimed a Power Stage bonus point meaning, after being forced to retire from the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally, he finished the weekend fourth in the standings. Citroen's Sebastien Loeb, who finished sixth in Sweden, maintained top spot ahead of Hirvonen and Petter Solberg in his Ford. Latvala told www.wrc.com: "It is amazing. Four years ago I won this rally and now I got it again. The first time I won this rally I became the youngest ever winner of a world championship rally and beat my hero Henri Toivonen's record. It's fantastic to win it again. "We got a lot of pressure after Monte and I felt the pressure coming to this event. This has taken a lot of pressure out of the coming events. I think we're really going to challenge Citroen. We're working very hard." Hirvonen said he enjoyed the weekend, despite ultimately being disappointed. "It's not too bad," he said. "I think we learned a lot this weekend. "Okay, I really did want to win this rally for the team but Jari-Matti was very strong this weekend. We had a fantastic fight and I really enjoyed it, but it's second this time.
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