American Marconi Wireless News - Ice and easy as Rovanpera grabs Swedish rally lead

The Finn, who is racing part-time this campaign, swept across the snow in northern Sweden to win Thursday evening's only stage in 3min 18.3sec.

"Just a clean start," said Rovanpera. "This one is always tricky as it is icy so it is tough to find the grip."

He led a Toyota sweep of the top three places with Takamoto Katsuta second and Elfyn Evans third.

"That is a good start," said Katsuta. "I am really looking forward to tomorrow."

Welshman Evans was less happy at his start in the only rally in the calendar raced entirely on snow and ice.

"Pretty mixed, a bit of loose snow about," he said. "I was probably not brave enough, I lost that line a bit but all OK."

Thierry Neuville, who opened the road because he won the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally in January, was sixth.

"It was OK," said the Belgian who drives for Hyundai. "We have to work a bit on the car to get a bit more traction tomorrow. I was struggling a bit."

The drivers tackle seven stages on both Friday and Saturday before concluding with three more on Sunday.

P.Silva--AMWN