TOP 10 FINISH FOR TOP BRIT MATT

Britain's Matthew Wilson made it a top 10 start to the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship in Sweden over the weekend.

The Cumbrian pilot reported steering problems on Friday morning but a change in set-up at the midday service noticeably improved the 24-year-old’s times on the repeat afternoon pass.  Wilson and co-driver Scott Martin moved from 19th position at the end of the opening loop to 15th overall at the end of Day One.

A relatively trouble-free day on Saturday saw Wilson move up to tenth, 1.4 seconds behind Patrik Sandell, and he continued to climb the WRC leaderboard on the final day and moved ahead of fellow Fiesta RS WRC driver Khalid Al Qassimi to finish the rally ninth overall.

“It’s been a good weekend overall – for sure,” said Wilson afterwards. “I am disappointed about the power steering problems that we had at the start but apart from that there’s been no major dramas.

“The car set-up has been working very well today and we’ve been lucky as the conditions have been a better than I had imagined. We’ve really enjoyed it out on the stages today but it’s just a shame that we lost so much time on Friday as we could have had a good battle with Kimi [Räikkönen].

“We found a good rhythm this afternoon and I’m feeling very well prepared for Mexico, especially since it’s on gravel which is our preferred surface. It’s brilliant to hear that our new team-mate Mads has finished second, he has driven faultlessly this weekend and really deserves that spot on the podium.”

Team-mate Henning Solberg and co-driver Ilka Minor got off to a flying start in Sweden as they set the fastest time on Thursday’s shakedown. This was followed by two top-three fastest stage times on Friday and meant the M-Sport Stobart duo were fifth overall at the end of the first full day.

However, a power steering problem with the Norwegian’s Fiesta RS WRC meant that Solberg was four minutes late out of Saturday morning’s service and he rolled out of the event two kilometres in to the Lesjöfors 1 stage.