Unseasonably mild weather meant there was little snow and ice on the forest tracks for what is traditionally the WRC’s only pure winter event.  Slush and water filled the rutted gravel roads as the cars narrow studded tyres carved through the soft surface and organisers cancelled two timed stages due to the deteriorating road surfaces and weather conditions.

Latvala led from the second of the rally's 18 stages in the Värmland region of central Sweden.  He won all six of the special stages on Friday’s opening day to build a lead he was never to lose.  He then paced himself through the final two days to win by 58.3sec.

"Henri Toivonen is a big hero of mine and in my dreams I wanted to beat his record, so this means so much to me," said Latvala.  "I couldn't have dreamed I could win on only my second event in a works team, especially after such a disappointing start to the year in Monte Carlo last month.  I can't really find the words to describe my feelings.  I never thought I would win this weekend and it was only this morning that I started to realise I could do it.  I started the rally so well on Friday and made no mistakes so I was able to control my speed.  I felt comfortable in the car all weekend and the whole team has a reason to celebrate today," he added.

While Fords were able to celebrate a clean sweep of the top three places, there was disappointment for Cumbria’s Matthew Wilson, who retired his Stobart Focus on the penultimate stage with a throttle problem. At the time he was in fifth place, 7.9 seconds ahead of Norway’s Andreas Mikkleson, also driving a Focus.

It was not a good rally for Citroen. Sebastien Loeb, on his 100th WRC start, rolled his C4 on Thursday and retired soon after with an engine problem. His team mate Dani Sordo started the rally with a five-minute penalty after a post-Monte Carlo engine change, but still managed sixth. (Without this penalty, on stage times, he would have been third overall).

Welshman Phil Mills delivered reliable English language pace-notes to his Norwegian driver, Petter Solberg, to claim fourth place overall in their Subaru Impreza.

Finland’s Toni Gardemeister brought the sole surviving Suzuki SX4 home in seventh place, on his second WRC round with the Japanese Manufacturer.

The next and third event in the 15-round World Rally Championship is Rally Mexico, which starts in Leon on Thursday 28th February.

Look out for regular WRC reports on UKTV’s “Dave” channel at 6pm every Sunday evening. For more information; www.uktv.co.uk/dave.