After teammate Mikko Hirvonen surrendered his lead to Petter Solberg early on in the rally after crashing out, Jari-Matti Latvala pushed hard to grab the lead back for the Ford Team and after taking the lead after stage 7 held on to win in his home rally, Neste Oil Rally Finland. It is often said that the Finnish drivers have a home-field advantage in Finland and that seemed to ring true again this year. In winning, Latvala became the youngest driver to capture a victory in Finland. “It’s a dream and I can’t even imagine it yet! It’s something I’ve been dreaming of since I was a small boy!”, exclaimed Latvala after the event.
Jari-Matti Latvala drove his way to victory in his home rally in Finland
Sebastien Ogier driving in his first event on the Citreon team secured a 2nd place finish behind Latvala and bested new teammate Sebastien Loeb for the 3rd straight gravel rally. Ogier will finish the rest of the gravel rallies this season driving for the Citroen team while Dani Sordo will be driving the tarmac rallies. Loeb wrapped up a 3rd place finish, after conceding that Rally Finland is a very difficult rally for him and he did not want to push harder then he was comfortable with. Loeb still has a substantial lead in the driver points standings with Ogier still 48 points behind him.
Petter Solberg had a great event, but just missed out on a podium finish only 4.7 seconds behind Loeb. Solberg seems to be getting a bit frustrated trying to compete with the manufacturer drivers. “I tried very hard but factory teams are factory teams,” said Solberg. “We have been fast but we’re a small rally team doing the best we can.” Solberg claimed he could not have gone any faster then he did with the resources he has as a privateer.
Dani Sordo made his first appearance with the Citroen Junior Team, where he will be for the remainder of the gravel rallies this season. Sordo finished in a respectable 5th position, but was not happy with his performance. Mads Ostberg finished in 7th in his Subaru Rally car, behind Stobart Ford driver Matthew Wilson. Ostberg fought his way back to 7th after breaking a wheel on Friday after a landing hard after a jump. Ostberg claimed it was his best rally to date, even in his aging Subaru Impreza.
Hirvonen was not the only driver to suffer some bad luck at Rally Finland. Henning Solberg making his debut in a S2000 Ford Fiesta had climbed his way upto 5th place before sliding into a ditch on Friday rolling his car 2 times and ending his event. Kimi Raiikonen had a barrage of issues on Saturday, losing more then 9 minutes after going off and getting stuck on a bank, where he lost the front bumper and spoiler. He then suffered two tire punctures on the next stage, but only had one spare and was forced to finish on just 3 inflated tires. Raikkonen finished the weekend in a disappointing 25th place.
Next up on the WRC schedule is ADAC Rally Deutschland on August 20-22.
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Photo courtesy: www.nesteoilrallyfinland.fi
