The Swedish youngster took the lead from the first stage and that was where he stayed for the remainder of the event. Even a puncture scare on Saturday’s final stage wasn’t enough to deter the Ford Fiesta pilot, as he finished the rally with a 37.8sec advantage over closest rival Mārtiņš Sesks.<\/p>\n
“It’s always difficult to find the right words for the moment! This is what I have dreamed about, to be able to start in the beginning and to do as well as this is great. I am so happy and so thankful for everybody who has helped me – this car is amazing to drive and everything works so good,” said the winner.<\/p>\n
Finnish driver Lauri Joona had been involved in an intense scrap with Sesks for second place, however, he picked up a puncture on the final stage of the rally and tumbled all the way back to ninth.<\/p>\n
Ken Torn capitalised on Joona’s problems and moved up to take third place, 22.6sec down on Sesks. He was closely followed by Flying Finn Sami Pajari, who was a further 11.2sec back.<\/p>\n
Raul Badiu impressed onlookers with two stage wins and rounded out the top-five. The Romanian trailed Pajari by just over two minutes at the end of an uncharacteristically mild Rally Sweden. Fabrizio Zaldivar was sixth, 30.2sec behind Badiu.<\/p>\n