Harri Rovanpera took a surprise stage win in his four-speed Mitsubishi Lancer on the final test of the 2005 Uddeholm Swedish Rally as Petter Solberg sealed his first victory on the event and Toni Gardemeister took the World Rally Championship lead with a third place finish and Markko Martin bagged second place.
Rovanpera completed the stage without using his broken fifth gear, but still beat Ford's Roman Kresta to the top time by 0.6s to ensure that he held onto a hard-earned fourth place overall. Kresta took the final drivers' championship point in eighth place overall after the retirement of Skoda's Janne Tuohino. The Finn started the stage in his Fabia three-wheeler, but didn't complete it.
Henning Solberg was the man who stood the best chance of ousting the apparently-hobbled Rovanpera on the last stage, but he was only third quickest, 2.5s slower than the Finn. Nevertheless, Solberg was delighted with his fifth place overall. Francois Duval - running first on the road after losing a lot of time when he broke a wheel yesterday - set the fourth best time and made sure of a finish, which earned Citroen a single manufacturer point.
Anthony Warmbold took the fifth best stage time ahead of Gardemeister and Petter Solberg. Markko Martin completed the stage successfully with eighth best time, to tie down second place overall despite diff' problems. Daniel Carlsson - a star of the final day - was ninth best on the stage and takes sixth overall ahead of Gigi Galli in the second Mitsubishi, who was also 10th on the stage.
-wrc-
