Championship first for cool Rovanpera

Finland's Harri Rovanpera captured the biggest win of his career yesterday with a superb triumph in the Rally of Sweden.

The 34-year-old Peugeot driver won the first World Rally Championship race of his career after mastering difficult snowy conditions to come home ahead of the field in three hours 27 minutes and 1.1 seconds.

Sweden's Thomas Radstrom was second in a Mitsubishi Carisma, 27.9 seconds behind, while Spaniard Carlos Sainz was third in his Ford Focus, 37 seconds behind the winner.

Rovanpera had started the third and final day with four-time world champion and compatriot Tommi Makinen breathing down his neck in second place. But Makinen's challenge finished when he lost control of his Mitsubishi and rolled over. Colin McRae's hopes were effectively buried on Friday, when he ploughed into a snowdrift leaving him more than three minutes behind. Although he managed to win seven of the 17 special stages, he had to settle for seventh place, nearly four-and-a-half minutes down.