Norway's Petter Solberg, driving a Subaru Impreza, topped the time charts in the opening super-special stage of the Rally of Sweden.

World champion Sebastien Loeb, who won the season-opener in Monte Carlo last month, was fourth fastest over the 1.9km course at the Karlstad racecourse in his Citroen.

The Frenchman, just 1.1sec behind 2003 world champion Solberg, has reached another milestone here as he and co-driver Daniel Elena are competing in their 100th rally together.

The Ford Focus duo of Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen were in second and third-place respectively on a treacherous super-special stage. Australia's Chris Atkinson, who was third in Monte-Carlo, came off worst.

His Subaru Impreza stalled on the start line and he lost precious seconds as a result. Atkinson finished 7.3secs behind his teammate. The first full day of the race is on Friday with seven stages.

Loeb's Spanish teammate Dani Sordo faces a tough examination this weekend after being penalised five minutes for changing the engine in his Citroen after the race in Monte Carlo. Under FIA rules, an engine must last three races.