The 2011 Rally Sweden was the opening round of
2011 World Rally Championship season
The 2011 World Rally Championship was the 39th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA World Rally Championship in automobile racing. The season consisted of 13 rallies, beginning with 2011 Rally Sweden, Rally Sweden on 10 ...
. It was the season's first and only event held on snow- and ice-covered gravel roads. The rally took place over 10–13 February, 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 ...
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 65,856 inhabitants in 2020 with 95,167 inhabitants ...
. The rally was also the first round of the
Production World Rally Championship.
The rally saw a beginning to a new era in the World Rally Championship, with the previous generation of WRC machinery such as the
Citroën C4
The Citroën C4 is a small family car/compact car (also classified as a compact crossover SUV since 2020) produced under their Citroën marque, from the French automaker PSA Group, and later Stellantis. It was positioned to be the successor to ...
and the
Ford Focus being phased out in favour of cars with a displacement of . Citroën will use their
DS3 model, and Ford will use the
Fiesta RS over the course of the 2011 season.
Also introduced for the 2011 season is the ''Power Stage'', in which the final stage of each rally will award bonus points towards the championship standings. The fastest driver on the stage, will receive three points with two for the second-fastest and one for the third-fastest.
Mikko Hirvonen took the 13th WRC win of his career, and his first victory since winning the same event in
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
, having overhauled
Mads Østberg midway through the second day.
Østberg took his best result in the championship, finishing on the podium for the first time just 6.5 seconds behind Hirvonen.
The podium was completed by another Ford driver, as Hirvonen's teammate
Jari-Matti Latvala finished third, 34 seconds behind Hirvonen.
Sébastien Ogier finished as the best Citroën driver in fourth place, and also picked up maximum bonus points with his victory on the first Power Stage of the season. Fellow Citroën driver
Petter Solberg rounded out the top five places, despite losing his licence before the final stage due to a speeding infringement on Friday afternoon. As per the country's law, the
Swedish Police Authority
The Swedish Police Authority ( sv, Polismyndigheten) is the national police force (''Polisen'') of the Kingdom of Sweden. The first modern police force in Sweden was established in the mid-19th century, and the police remained in effect under loc ...
had given Solberg 48 hours grace before he could no longer drive after being caught going at in an area where the limit was . With the ban coming into effect prior to the final stage, Solberg's co-driver
Chris Patterson had to drive the stage.
In the supporting PWRC class,
Martin Semerád took his first victory by over five minutes ahead of Yuriy Protasov.
Results
Event standings
Special stages
Power Stage
The first ever "Power stage", a live televised 4.16 km short stage at the end of the rally, was held near the village of Gustavsfors.
Standings after the rally
;Drivers' Championship standings
;Manufacturers' Championship standings
References
External links
Resultsa
eWRC.com
{{Rally Sweden
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
Swedish Rally
Rally