Latvala first took the lead in the rally of 1000 lakes midway through Day 1, shortly after his teammate Mikko Hirvonen crashed out of the event. For a brief period of time, the lead belonged to Citroen’s privateer Petter Solberg, after which Latvala put the hammer on and slowly detached himself from the pack.
At the end of Day 1, reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb was as low as 7th place – after losing the front bumper of his C4 in the early stages – but the Frenchman made the best of his starting position on Saturday to eventually win the battle for 3rd place against Solberg. At the same time, his new gravel teammate Ogier started to put some pressure on Latvala up front, cutting the time gap to almost 10 seconds with 2 stages to go.
Unlike in Portugal however, the Finn made no mistakes until the final check point, managing to secure his first win on home soil and cement his 3rd place in the overall classification.
“This is something that I have been dreaming of since I was a very, very small boy,” said Latvala after winning the rally.
Fourth place belonged to Solberg, while followed by Dani Sordo – who tackled his first rally as a non-works driver for Citroen this season. Stobart Ford’s Matthew Wilson finished 6th overall, ahead of Adapta Subaru’s Mads Ostberg.
Former WRC champion Juha Kankkunen, returning to action after 8 years on the sidelines, managed an extraordinary 8th place for Stobart, while followed by Skoda duo Juho Hanninen and Per-Gunnar Andersson.
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