Last updated 10:55, Friday, 15 February 2008

ON JUST the second round of the 2008 FIA World Rally Championship the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford rally team have finished on the podium after a fine display of driving by freshly signed Italian crew Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini.

Stobart’s Gigi Galli on his way to third place in the Swedish Rally

With team-mates Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud finishing in a manufacturer points position, the Pirelli-shod Stobart team have moved to equal second in the manufacturers’ championship.

Galli drove superbly on Sunday to finish third. The Italian was in fine form throughout the event keeping things balanced to eventually finish on the final step of the podium for the second time in his career and the first with his new team.

He also managed to pick up a stage win on the 1.9 kilometre Karlstad super special in front of a packed crowd.

On what is essentially his home event Solberg began the Swedish Rally extremely well and found himself in third place after the opening day.

Unfortunately his super run came to an end on stage 12 when he hit a safety barrier at high speed causing extensive damage to the front end of his Stobart Ford Focus RS WRC07.

A gallant effort overnight by his Stobart mechanics saw the Norwegian back out on Sunday and he pushed hard to win every single stage on the final day and climb back up to 13th overall.

Twenty-one-year-old Wilson was flying in one of his best rallies to date and after 18 stages was holding a remarkable fifth position overall. Unfortunately, around the halfway point of stage 19 - the penultimate stage - a fly-by wire throttle problem caused the pedal to stick open forcing him to stop and rectify the issue.

After 20 minutes the young Brit managed to continue but retired at the end of the stage. Over the course of the event Wilson was pushing well inside the top 10 and improved on his pace extremely well as the event grew older.

Wilson said: “I’m obviously gutted at having to retire so close to the finish and in such a good position but there are lots of positives we can take from this event.”