The 2008 Swedish Rally, officially ''57th Uddeholm Swedish Rally'', was the second round of the

2008 World Rally Championship season The 2008 World Rally Championship was the 36th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 15 rallies and began on 24 January, with the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally. Frenchman Sébastien Loeb successfully retained the Drivers ...

. It was the season's first and only event held on snow- and ice-covered gravel roads. The rally took place during February 7–10, beginning with the

Super Special Stage A special stage (SS) is a section of closed road at a stage rallying event used for timed speed tests. Racers attempt to complete the stage in the shortest time. A race on a special stage is coordinated such that each competing racer begins after a ...

placed in the rally's base,

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 67,122 inhabitants in 2020 with 97,233 inhabitan ...

. The rally was also the first round of the

Production Car World Rally Championship The FIA Production car World Rally Championship, or PWRC, was a companion rally series to the World Rally Championship, contested mainly by Group N rally cars. History The series started in 1987 as ''FIA Cup for Production Rally Drivers'' and ...

this season. Even though it snowed before the rally, eliminating the threat of calling the event off, the mild temperatures caused cancellation of stages 12 and 18, shortening the overall competitive length. The rally was won by

BP Ford World Rally Team The Ford World Rally Team, also known as the ''Ford Motor Co. Team'' prior to 2005, was Ford Motor Company's factory World Rally Championship team. It was a regular competitor in the series from the 1970s until withdrawing following the 2012 W ...

Jari-Matti Latvala Jari-Matti Latvala (; born 3 April 1985) is a Finnish rally driver who has competed in the World Rally Championship (WRC). His co-driver for most of his career was Miikka Anttila, who co-drove for Latvala between the 2003 Rallye Deutschland and ...

; the first of his championship career. Latvala's teammate and compatriot

Mikko Hirvonen Mikko Hirvonen (born 31 July 1980) is a Finnish former rally driver, and a current Rally-Raid driver, who drove in the World Rally Championship. He placed third in the drivers' championship and helped Ford to the manufacturers' title in both 2 ...

was second and Stobart VK M-Sport Ford's Gigi Galli completed an all-Ford podium.

Subaru World Rally Team The Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT) was Subaru's World Rally Championship (WRC) team. It used a distinctive blue with yellow colour scheme that is a throwback to the sponsorship deal with State Express 555, a BAT cigarette brand popular in Asia. ...

Petter Solberg Petter Solberg (born 18 November 1974), nicknamed "Mr. Hollywood" is a Norwegian former professional rallying, rally and rallycross driver. Solberg debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1998 and was signed by the Ford World Rally Team, For ...

was fourth, followed by

Andreas Mikkelsen Andreas Mikkelsen (born 22 June 1989) is a Norwegian rally driver. He is currently competing in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT. He previously drove for the factory teams of Volkswagen and Citroën, finishing third in th ...

Dani Sordo Daniel "Dani" Sordo Castillo (born 2 May 1983) is a Spanish rally driver. He competes in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. He achieved his first WRC victory at the 2013 Rallye Deutschland. Career Sordo began in motocross whe ...

Toni Gardemeister Toni Gardemeister (born 31 March 1975) is a Finnish professional rally driver in the World Rally Championship. After previously competing for SEAT's, Mitsubishi's, Škoda's and Ford's factory teams, as well as for privateer teams, he joined the ...

Juho Hänninen Juho Ville Matias Hänninen (born 25 July 1981) is a Finnish rally driver. He is the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) champion and 2011 Super 2000 World Rally Championship (S-WRC) champion with co-driver Mikko Markkula driving a work ...

Mads Østberg Mads Østberg (born 11 October 1987) is a Norway, Norwegian Rallying, rally driver. His co-driver is Torstein Eriksen. Career Østberg competed in his first rally in 2004. His first World Rally Championship event was the 2006 Swedish Rally, in ...

and

Jari Ketomaa Jari Ketomaa (born 18 April 1979) is a Finnish former rally driver. Career A former kart racer, Ketomaa started rallying in 1995. He made his World Rally Championship debut in 2000 at Rally Finland. He won the Group N class of the Finnish R ...

. Fifth-placed Matthew Wilson ran into technical problems with throttle on the penultimate stage and had to retire.

Sébastien Loeb Sébastien Loeb (; born 26 February 1974) is a French professional rally, racing and rallycross driver. He is the most successful driver in the World Rally Championship (WRC), having won the world championship a record nine times in a row. He ho ...

crashed out and rolled his car while running third, then retired again, after restarting under SupeRally and winning two stages, because of the damaged engine.

Henning Solberg Henning Solberg (born 8 January 1973) is a Norway, Norwegian Rallying, rally and rallycross driver. Together with his female co-driver Ilka Minor, he currently competes in the World Rally Championship (WRC) with cars of M-Sport. Solberg is the o ...

inherited the third place, but later suffered a puncture causing him to slip further down and then crashed while running fourth and was forced to retire for the second day; after rejoining the fight under SupeRally format Norwegian was the fastest driver on day three, winning all the remaining stages. With his debut win, the 22-year old Latvala became the then- youngest winner in the history of the WRC, breaking

Henri Toivonen Henri Pauli Toivonen (25 August 1956 – 2 May 1986) was a Finnish rally driver born in Jyväskylä, the home of Rally Finland. His father, Pauli, was the 1968 European Rally Champion for Porsche and his younger brother, Harri, became a prof ...

's record from the 1980

RAC Rally Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) cal ...

; his own record would stand until the 2021 Rally Estonia where it would be broken by the 20-year-old

Kalle Rovanperä Kalle Rovanperä (; born 1 October 2000) is a Finnish professional rally driver who competes in the World Rally Championship (WRC) for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, alongside co-driver Jonne Halttunen. He is a double World Champion, having won the 20 ...

. __TOC__

Results

Special stages

All dates and times are

CET CET or cet may refer to: Places * Cet, Albania * Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus * Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England Arts, entertainment, and media * Comcast En ...

(

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

Championship standings after the event

Drivers' championship

Manufacturers' championship

Production championship

Points table:

References

External links

Results
a
eWRC.com
{{Rally Sweden Swedish Rally, 2008 Swedish Rally

Rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Political demonstration, a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a North American school or college sporting event Sport ...

21st century in Värmland County