Mikko Hirvonen has so far won the war of attrition, the only works WRC car without the scars of battle tearing it to shreds. Ford were a victim of their own success, the late running order working against them, and making the stages so difficult for Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg that they crashed out within a stage of each other.

Jari-Matti Latvala leads a blue oval dominated Rally Portugal, after championship leader Sebastien Loeb made a rare mistake that forced the Frenchman’s retirement from the rally.

Jari-Matti Latvala led a dominant performance by the blue oval in Rally Portugal’s qualifying stage – the three mile stage setting the running order for the opening leg of the rally on Thursday.

The WRC circus heads to Portugal for Round 4 of the championship, and the unpredictable nature of the rally could throw up shades of the 2001 catastrophe once again.

During Stage 22 of Rally Sweden, Jari-Matti Latvala was on the brink of disaster. A punctured tyre, losing valuable seconds to the chasing Citroen of Mikko Hirvonen. Another 25 points were slipping through his fingers. But, unlike in Monte Carlo the month before, instead of throwing his car off the road, he composed himself, finished the stage, and held off his former team-mate to take victory by just under 17 seconds.

The lack of snow on the usually pure white stages of Rally Sweden casued problems up and down the field, but Jari-Matti Latvala managed his tyres the best of all the leaders and remained in the top spot at the end of the penultimate, continuing to fend off Mikko Hirvonen by 23 seconds.

After former WRC promoter North One Sport went into administration, and a deal to replace them with Eurosport lead to a dead end, the FIA have publicly announced the selection process for a new promoter to be put in place.

Dani Sordo got Mini’s WRC debut on snow off to a good start, after going fastest in the short sprint through this evening’s Karlstad superspecial stage.

The BMW Group today announced they would continue their partnership with Prodrive in the World Rally Championship, however there were a raft of changes as the Mini World Rally Team lost their manufacturer status.

Rally Sweden has been a near guaranteed fixture since the sport’s inception, however there are signs that it could be the last time there is even a world championship for them to host.

After the WRC’s former promoter North One Sport went into administration, the WRC Academy support series had been thrown into a state of uncertainty. However, thanks to an agreement between the FIA and M-Sport, the single-make junior class will return for a 6 round championship at Rally Portugal in March.

Petter Solberg got himself in hot water with the Monte Carlo rally organisers, after being clocked doing 106km/h in a 50km/h zone. The offence was committed last night, as crews returned to service in Monaco following the conclusion of the day’s competitive stages.

Sebastien Loeb once again made the art of winning look effortless, winning the last day’s only stage – which just happened to be the bonus points powerstage – to finish the inaugural round of the 2012 World Rally Championship over 2 minutes up on his rivals and with 28 points to boot.

While Sebastien Loeb stayed in the background, accumulating Top 3 stage times to keep his lead as big as ever, it was Dani Sordo and Petter Solberg who were the center of attention yet again in the battle for second, with Mikko Hirvonen trying to barge his way into the podium places just behind them.

While Sebastien Loeb remained out front, it was a subdued day for the Frenchman, with Citroen team-mate Mikko Hirvonen taking two stage victories to rapidly close in on the ailing Petter Solberg, who let second place slip of out of his grasp and leave it for the taking by Dani Sordo.