Latvala is youngest rally winner

KARLSTAD, Sweden -- Jari-Matti Latvala became the youngest driver to win a world championship race when he triumphed in the Rally of Sweden on Sunday.

The 22-year-old Finn led a podium sweep for Ford Focus after leading from the end of Friday's second stage and taking full advantage of the departure of world champion Sebastien Loeb, who crashed on stage 13.

Latvala finished 58 seconds ahead of compatriot and Ford teammate Mikko Hirvonen while Gigi Galli, driving a Focus for the Stobart team, was third 1min 25sec off the pace.

It was Latvala's second podium finish, after a third place in the Rally of Ireland in November last year when representing Stobart, the Ford 'B' team.

The last day in Sweden was dominated by Norway's Henning Solberg, who was too far down the field to threaten the leaders after a crash on Saturday.

"It's a super feeling!" said an elated Latvala after breaking the previous record of youngest event winner held by Finnish rally legend Henri Toivonen, who died in 1986.

"It's almost unbelievable," he added. "Henri (Toivonen) was one of my idols and secretly I've always wanted to beat his record as the youngest winner.

"The rally started so well from the first stage. We've made no mistakes, the car has been absolutely perfect and I've been able to control the speed - I'm really happy about that.

"I feel very comfortable now, this result has given me a lot of self confidence and I'm really looking forward to Mexico," he added in reference to the WRC's next staging post for the February 28-March 2 rally there.

Citroen's Loeb is joint second in the championship standings, six points behind new leader Mikko Hirvonen. E-mail to a friend