Patrik Sandell mastered 24 difficult, icy and snow-packed before he permitting himself to tweet "I soooo happy" to rally followers across the world as a release. He can be forgiven for having missed the grammatical error, for eighth place overall on the Rally Sweden was not only his career best, but also the top finish of all MINI John Cooper Works WRC drivers entered in the Nordic event.

Thus he scored four points towards the drivers’ classification. During the coming days he intends consulting with his team and advisers, which circle includes the likes of former world rally champions Stig Blomqvist and Björn Waldegard, with a view to contesting further rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC). "This is only the start,” Patrik stated. "I still need to learn a lot about the MINI, but this has been a solid start.”

While Jari-Matti Latvala, Mikko Hirvonen and Mads Ostberg claimed places one through to three in Sweden, Armindo Araujo of WRC Team MINI Portugal finished the event in 15^th  place overall. Richard Göransson – also driving a MINI WRC – ended 38^th , while Paulo Nobre of the WRC Team MINI Portugal, and Dani Sordo, the latter Sandell’s team-mate in the second Prodrive-entered MINI WRC, failed to finish the Rally Sweden after their unplanned excursions.

The third round of the 2012 WRC season takes place in Mexico from 8 to 11 March. The schedule includes 25 special stages totalling a distance of 430,37 competitive kilometres.