Last updated 15:07, Friday, 15 February 2008

M-SPORT, the Dovenby-based rally business, emphatically displayed its dominance of the sport’s world championship by taking all three podium places at the Swedish Rally last weekend.

Jari-Matti Latvala is held aloft by Gigi Galli, left, and Mikko Hirvonen after his win

There was even another M-Sport-supplied Ford Focus in fifth, an outstanding performance that follows on from five Fords in the top 10 at the Rallye Monte Carlo two weeks earlier.

Jari-Matti Latvala, of the M-Sport-run BP-Ford Abu Dhabi team, won in Sweden, his maiden World Rally Championship win.

At 22 years old the Finn, who moves to second in the drivers’ classification, is now the youngest ever winner of the WRC event.

His team-mates Mikko Hirvonen finished second in Sweden, a result that puts him top of the drivers’ rankings - former leader and defending champion Sébastien Loeb failing to finish in Sweden.

In third last weekend was the Stobart VK Ford M-Sport team’s new driver, Gigi Galli, a result that moves him into fourth.

Fifth in the rally was Andreas Mikkelsen, driving an M-Sport Ford Focus as part of the Ramsport team.

Mikkelsen’s fifth makes him, at 18, the youngest winner of a WRC point - a record he takes from Stobart’s Matthew Wilson.

BP-Ford leads the manufacturers’ championship - in which it is going for a hat-trick of wins - while Stobart is equal second with Subaru.