The Volkswagen pair was on supreme form throughout the event and while pushed hard by team-mates Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia, the Finns never truly looked beatable and eclipsed the previous highest average speed of 122.89 kph set by Sébastien Loeb on the same rally in 2012 by winning the event at a remarkable average of 125.44 kph. This also represents their second consecutive victory on home soil and third overall win in Finland. World Champions Ogier and Ingrassia finished 13.7 seconds adrift in the second Polo R WRC and Mads Østberg and Jonas Andersson took the final podium position in their DS 3 WRC.

In the FIA World Rally Championship standings, Ogier has a commanding 89 point advantage over Latvala, whose win sees him move up into second position. Mads Østberg is third, nine points adrift with Andreas Mikkelsen just one point further behind in fourth. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, maximum points for Volkswagen Motorsport mean it stands 116 points ahead of the second-placed Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team.

Rally Finland has always been one of the fastest and most spectacular events on the calendar and once again delivered amazing action from some of the world’s most talented drivers. Just one stage, run twice, lay in wait for the crews on Sunday and Latvala stamped his mark on the opening stage, taking the win by just under a second over Ogier. Run again as the Power Stage, Ogier claimed the additional three points for the stage win with Latvala second and Kris Meeke third, the Northern Ireland driver salvaging a point from Rally Finland after crashing out of the event yesterday.

Behind the leading trio, Thierry Neuville claimed fourth and Ott Tanak recovered from his Friday problems to take fifth, 15 seconds ahead of Juho Hänninen. Martin Prokop finished seventh and FIA WRC 2 Championship team-mates Esapekka Lappi and Pontus Tidemand finished an impressive eighth and ninth respectively in their Skoda Fabia R5s. Italian Lorenzo Bertelli notched up his first points of the season for finishing 10th.

In the FIA Junior WRC and FIA WRC 3 Championship categories, Quentin Gilbert and Renaud Jamoul narrowly took the victory in their DS3 R3T. They started the day with 22.8 seconds in hand to Henri Haapamaki but lost over 10 seconds to their rival in the first stage. Then a mistake by the co-driver resulted in a 10 second penalty leaving them with the fight of their lives in the final stage. They ultimately won by a mere five-tenths of a second.

The ninth round of the FIA World Rally Championship sees the contenders head from gravel to the ‘three-in-one’ tarmac round of ADAC Rallye Deutschland (20-23 August).

Neste Oil Rally Finland – Final Unofficial Results (subject to scrutineering)

FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 8 of 13 rounds)

FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 8 of 13 rounds)