•Solberg fastest on superspecial
•The clasic stage action starts tomorrow morning

Petter Solberg has won the superspecial in Karlstad, which opened the rally. Thousands of fans watched the 1.9km long stage improvised on a horse-trotting track. The weather continued to very mild and the snow was almost absent, the stage being run on ice mixed with frozen gravel, but the surface resisted well against the studded tires that were used by the crews and the competitors had no problems.
Citroen's Dani Sordo had started the rally with a 5 minutes penalty because the engine on his car was changed before the start of the rally. This year's regulations say that one engine must be used for at least two consecutive events.
The proper stage action begins tomorrow morning at 9:34, when the first stage will be run in the forests north to the city of Kalstad, where the rally's headquarters are situated. The conditions on tomorrow's stages will be better, snow, ice and snow-banks being reported.
The first ten results on the superstage:

1.  5 Petter SOLBERG       1:28.9
2.  4 Jari-Matti LATVALA   1:29.4 
3.  3 Mikko HIRVONEN       1:29.8 
4.  1 Sébastien LOEB       1:30.0 
5.  8 Henning SOLBERG      1:30.4 
6.  7 Gigi GALLI           1:30.9 
7. 12 Per-Gunnar ANDERSSON 1:30.9 
8. 11 Toni GARDEMEISTER    1:32.1 
9. 19 Mads ØSTBERG         1:33.0 
10.17 Andreas MIKKELSEN    1:33.4 

Adi Diaconescu
Autorally.ro team