21 Dec 12

Images of 2012:
Head-to-head in
Sweden

For a 12-day period, WRC.com will be looking back on the FIA World Rally Championship season just gone by picking out some of the epic images captured by the McKlein photographic agency that made 2012 one to remember.

February: Pictured in battle on Rally Sweden’s superspecial stage in Karlstad are Mikko Hirvonen (foreground) and Jari-Matti Latvala. Hirvonen was faster than his rival through the 1.9-kilometre test in his Citroen DS3 WRC but in the final classification it was Latvala who emerged on top in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC with a winning margin of 16.6s over Hirvonen. Ford privateer Mads Ostberg completed the top-three on the rally - the first of three podiums that the Norwegian would claim in 2012 - although he was 0.3s slower than stage winner Dani Sordo in a MINI John Cooper Works WRC.

Photo: McKlein