Latvala becomes youngest rally winner at 22

KARLSTAD, Sweden (Reuters) - Finland's Jari-Matti Latvala won the Swedish Rally for Ford on Sunday to become, at 22, the youngest winner of a world championship event.

Compatriot and team mate Mikko Hirvonen finished second to take the lead in the overall standings from Citroen's Sebastien Loeb, who pulled out on Saturday after crashing heavily on Friday.

"It's a super feeling, it's almost unbelievable," said Latvala, who beat the record previously held by his late compatriot Henri Toivonen.

"Henri was one of my idols and secretly I've always wanted to beat his record as the youngest winner."

Toivonen, a winner in Britain in 1980 at the age of 24, died in a crash in Corsica in 1986.

Hirvonen has 16 points after two rounds of the championship with Latvala and Loeb, the four times world champion who won the Monte Carlo season-opener, level on 10 each.

Italian Gigi Galli took third place for the non-works Stobart Ford team, and is fourth overall in the standings with nine points.

Norwegian Petter Solberg, the 2003 world champion, finished fourth on Sunday with compatriot Andreas Mikkelsen fifth in a privately-entered Ford.

Citroen's Spanish driver Dani Sordo was sixth, after starting the event with a five-minute penalty for fitting a new engine, Suzuki's Finn Toni Gardemeister finished seventh and compatriot Juho Haenninen eighth in a Mitsubishi.