Toni Gardemeister has finished in the points for Suzuki on the Swedish Rally, claiming seventh position and the team's best result to date - scoring two driver points and three manufacturer points.

Following on from P-G Andersson's result in Monte Carlo two weeks ago, this means that a Suzuki SX4 WRC has taken points on both rallies held so far in the 2008 World Rally Championship.

Andersson was forced to retire on the opening day of the rally with a head gasket problem, but Gardemeister had a reliable run to the finish despite some hydraulic issues and an off-road excursion on Saturday.

Crews had to battle with a distinct lack of snow on the stages compared to previous years, which led to a stage being cancelled on both Saturday and Sunday. With comparatively warm temperatures above zero degrees, there was plenty of loose gravel that ripped the studs out of Pirelli's control tyres and reduced the amount of grip available.

Having fought his way strongly back into the points after going off the road yesterday, Gardemeister concentrated on consolidating his position over the final six stages. With SS18 being cancelled due to lack of snow, he was able to cruise to the end in Karlstad to rack up Suzuki's second consecutive points finish. The Suzuki SX4 WRC once again showed itself capable of setting top-six times over the course of the three-day event.

Toni Gardemeister

"I'm very happy to have scored my first points for Suzuki after a tough three days. The biggest problem we had were the conditions. There was a lot of loose gravel, and so we had to soften the suspension a lot on the opening day to deal with the rough stages. Then we had a problem with the hydraulics on the second day, and also we went off the road. That was a really stupid thing, as it should have cost us just 10 or 15 seconds and in the end it took three minutes – although of course we are always grateful for any help in these situations! On the last day we just drove safely to the finish as there was no point in taking any risks. There's lots of development still to do but I'm basically very happy with the pace of the car considering the fact that we did comparatively little testing. By the end of the year, I'm sure we will be a lot closer to the frontrunners."

P-G Andersson

"The amount of media interest we had in us on our home rally was incredible - I think it went up by 600%! Obviously the way the rally ended was very disappointing for myself and my co-driver Jonas, but there is a lot for us to be positive about as well. Toni has proved that our SX4 WRC is capable of consistently scoring points, and if we had kept going I think we certainly would have been able to challenge for another place in the points. We have to remember that this is only our second rally with the SX4 WRC, and at least we have a good idea now about the cause of my retirement. We must keep on working hard to fix these problems, and I'm looking forward to coming back and pushing hard again on the next round in Mexico."

Swedish Rally - Final Positions

1  Latvala-Anttila        Ford Focus WRC     2h46'41"2
2  Hirvonen-Lehtinen      Ford Focus WRC     +    58"3  
3  Galli-Bernacchini      Ford Focus WRC     +  2'23"2 
4  P.Solberg-Mills        Subaru Impreza WRC +  2'59"4 
5  Mikkelsen-Floene       Ford Focus WRC     +  5'46"0 
6  Sordo-Marti            Citroen C4 WRC     +  7'13"1
7  Gardemeister-Tuominen  Suzuki SX4 WRC     + 10'35"3 
8  Hanninen-Markkula      Mitsubishi Lancer  + 12'27"5 
9  Østberg-Unnerud        Subaru Impreza WRC + 13'28"5
10 Ketomaa-Teiskonen      Subaru Impreza     + 13'50"7