The 2010 Rally Sweden was the opening round of the

2010 World Rally Championship season The 2010 World Rally Championship was the 38th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 13 rallies, beginning with Rally Sweden on 11 February and ended with Wales Rally GB on 14 November. France's Sébastien Loe ...

. It was the season's first and only event held on snow- and ice-covered gravel roads. The rally was held over February 11–14, beginning with a

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 ...

in the event's base town of

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 both 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 ...

, and the brand-new Super 2000 World Rally Championship. The rally was the first to incorporate the new points system introduced to all classes for the 2010 season. The system sees 25 points awarded for first, 18 for second, with third receiving 15, 12 for fourth and then ten, eight, six, four, two, and one for tenth place.

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 ...

won the rally, taking the twelfth win of his career. Hirvonen took six stage wins over the course of the rally, leading overall from Stage 5 onwards. Reigning world champion

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 ...

finished second, some 42 seconds behind the Finn, with Hirvonen's teammate

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 ...

completing the podium in third place. Further back,

Marcus Grönholm Marcus Ulf Johan "Bosse" Grönholm (born February 5, 1968) is a Finland, Finnish former rallying, rally and rallycross driver, being part of a family of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland lineage. His son, Niclas Grönholm, is an upcoming ...

returned to a WRC event, but finished outside the points in 21st position.

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

world champion

Kimi Räikkönen Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "the Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One ...

made his second start in a WRC rally, and his first at the wheel of a contemporary World Rally Car. Räikkönen lost over half an hour to the leading drivers when his car got stuck in an area of soft snow, and was forced to dig himself out on day one. He never recovered the time lost and finished 29th overall. In the inaugural SWRC event, Per-Gunnar Andersson held off the challenges of

Janne Tuohino Janne Tuohino (born 22 May 1975) is a Finland, Finnish Rallying, rally driver. Career He began his rally career in 1993 when he entered a rally sprint in a Toyota Starlet. Although his first true rally was in January 1994, in which he drove ...

and

Martin Prokop Martin Prokop (, born 4 October 1982) is a Czech Republic, Czech Rallying, rally driver. He won the Junior World Rally Championship in the 2009 World Rally Championship season, 2009 season. Career After competing in the Czech Rally Champions ...

to win the rally. Prokop also earned an overall stage win, when he completed the second run through the Hagfors Sprint stage in the fastest time. In the PWRC, Patrik Flodin won by over a minute from Anders Grøndal, with

Armindo Araújo Armindo Araújo (born 1 September 1977) is a Portugal, Portuguese Rallying, rally driver. He won the Production World Rally Championship in the 2009 World Rally Championship, 2009 season, repeating the accomplishment in the next year (2010 World R ...

over five minutes behind the Swede in third.

Results

Event standings

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 ...

Standings after the rally

Standings

Drivers' championship

Manufacturers' championship

SWRC Drivers' championship

WRC Cup for Super 2000 Teams championship

PWRC Drivers' championship

References

External links

Results
a
eWRC.com
{{Rally Sweden

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

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