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 . Citroën will use their DS3 model, and Ford will use the Fiesta RS over the course of the 2011 season. 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.
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. Østberg took his best result in the championship, finishing on the podium for the first time just 6.5 seconds behind Hirvonen. 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 in an area where the limit was . With the ban coming into effect prior to the final stage, Solberg's co-driver Chris Patterson had to drive the stage.
In the supporting PWRC class, Martin Semerád took his first victory by over five minutes ahead of Yuriy Protasov.
Results
Event standings 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 4. Sébastien Ogier Julien Ingrassia Citroën DS3 WRC 3:24:44.3 47.7 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 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
Special stages All dates and times are CET (UTC+1). DayStageTimeNameLengthWinnerTimeAvg. 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
Power Stage 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. PosDriverTimeDiff.Avg. speedPoints 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
Standings after the rally
Drivers' Championship standings 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 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
References
External links Results at eWRC.com