Finland’s Jari Ketomaa took a convincing victory in WRC 2 at Rally Sweden after leading for virtually the entire event in a Ford Fiesta R5.
It made up for his disappointment 12 months ago when he celebrated victory, only to find that Karl Kruuda nosed ahead in the final kilometres to win by less than three seconds.
Ketomaa took the lead on Friday morning and was never again headed to beat Eyvind Brynildsen by 32.6sec as the Drive DMACK squad claimed a 1-2.
“After missing out on winning by such a small margin last year, I’m pleased to put things right this time. I pushed hard in the opening day to build a lead and controlled it from there. We’ve worked hard to develop our studded tyres over the last year and it paid off,” said Ketomaa.
Brynildsen was second in his Fiesta RRC
Brynildsen had no major problems in his Fiesta RRC to head Valeriy Gorban’s Mini John Cooper by 2min 54.8sec, the Ukraine driver recovering from going off the road yesterday when second.
Yazeed Al Rajhi held off a hard-charging Pontus Tidemand to take fourth in a Fiesta RRC. The Swede, who led the rally outright after Thursday night’s opening test, finished just 3.3sec behind the Saudi Arabian after losing time off the road on Friday.
Fredrik Åhlin fell from third to sixth in the penultimate stage after plunging into a snow bank following a gear selection error.
Gianluca Linari won the Production Cup within WRC 2, the Italian heading Eamonn Boland by more than six minutes. Both were driving Subaru Impreza cars.