The all-Finnish crew of Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen today won their home round of the FIA World Rally Championship, Rally Finland. With the exception of the opening super special stage, the duo led from start to finish and claimed their first win on home soil - and their third consecutive victory - by 25.1 seconds. Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena pushed the Finns hard, but after a puncture yesterday they fell too far adrift to continue fighting for victory. Hirvonen’s team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila claimed third, their first podium finish in Finland.

In the FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers, Hirvonen continues to lead and now has a three point advantage over Loeb. Dani Sordo retains third while Latvala moves up into fourth position. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, BP Ford has closed the gap but Citroën Total still leads by 14 points.

The final day of Rally Finland took in two loops of two identical stages covering just 47.44 competitive kilometres.  The top eight points scoring positions remained the same throughout the day, and the only leading retirement was Conrad Rautenbach. He went off the road in the penultimate stage.

The 2009 FIA Junior World Rally Championship was also settled in Finland. With one round remaining, Martin Prokop and co-driver Jan Tomanék have won the title for the first time (subject to official publication of the results by the FIA).

The 10th round of the FIA World Rally Championship takes the crews to New South Wales for Rally Australia (3-6 September).

Rally Finland – Final Results (subject to final scrutineering and the results of the anti-doping tests for the following drivers: No. 3, 8, 59, 79, 97 and 68)

 
FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 9 of 12 rounds)

FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 9 of 12 rounds)