BP Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen heads the leaderboard on his home round of the FIA World Rally Championship, Rally Finland. The Finn won four of today’s nine stages to establish a 3.3 second advantage over reigning World Champion Sébastien Loeb. Citroën Total team-mate, Dani Sordo, is third overnight.

Rally Finland is one of the all-time classics on the calendar and in its 58 year history only seven non-Finns have won the event. While the gravel roads are wide and smooth, numerous high-speed jumps hide bends over the crests. As a consequence, experience of the roads is crucial, pace notes must be absolutely perfect and the driving line totally precise on one of the fastest and most spectacular events in the series.

The event kicked off on Thursday evening with a super special stage, won by Loeb. However, this morning the crews headed into the forests and it was Hirvonen who took the early advantage by winning the first two stages. It was nevertheless an intense battle between him and Loeb, the Frenchman winning the following two stages to close the gap to 3.6 seconds by the mid-day service. This afternoon, on the same repeated stages, the pattern was the same with both drivers winning the same stages leaving them split by just four seconds going into the final super special stage, which Loeb again won.

Behind the two main World Championship contenders, Sordo has maintained a good pace but is 20 seconds adrift of the lead. After his last stage accident on Rally Poland, Jari-Matti Latvala has driven cautiously throughout the day but holds fourth position, 10.1 seconds behind Sordo. Local star Matti Rantanen has climbed to fifth, the Finn looking to improve on his overall seventh place in 2008. He is in a battle with Henning Solberg, who is struggling to find extra pace. Brother Petter was one of the leading retirements of the day. The Norwegian went off the road after picking up a puncture. Evgeny Novikov was also forced onto the sidelines after a pace note error saw the Russian take the wrong line into a corner in SS2. Both Solberg and Novikov are however expected to re-join the rally for Saturday’s stages.

Making his debut in an FIA World Rally Championship event, Formula One star Kimi Räikkönen holds 17th overall and fourth in Group N. While the Finnish former World Champion has competed on asphalt and snow events, this is only his fourth rally and first competitive outing on gravel.

Rally Finland - Results after Day 1

Note to Editors: Attached image of Mikko Hirvonen is copyright free for editorial use. Please click here.