Loeb wins Rally Finland!

Sebastien Loeb

Frenchman Sebastien Loeb has won the 2008 Neste Oil Rally Finland and with it the 42nd WRC victory of his career.

In an event which is historically dominated by local drivers, Loeb becomes only the fourth non Scandinavian to win the event since it was first run in 1951.



At the finish control a delighted Loeb and his co-driver Daniel Elena climbed onto the roof of their Citroen C4 WRC and waved a French national flag. "It's fantastic, an incredible feeling, winning here in Finland means so much to me!" said Loeb. "I desperately wanted to win this rally because it's been one of the hardest. So getting a win here was more important to me than just getting points. It's been a very hard battle with Mikko all weekend with no chance to relax. He did a great job - I've had to fight for every second."

A maximum 10 points moves Loeb closer his rival Hirvonen in the 2008 drivers' championship although he remains in second place, one point adrift of the Finn.

Hirvonen brought his Ford Focus RS over the finish line in second, just 9.9 sec slower than Loeb after 340 kilometres of furious, high speed competition. "I wanted to win here, but it was still fantastic event," said Hirvonen. "I'm pleased with the speed we had but Seb was able to find few more seconds, and in the end that's all he needed to win. The championship fight is not over, but of course all the rallies coming up are more important now. It's not over yet!"

A delighted Chris Atkinson was third in his Subaru Impreza WRC2008 and moved ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala into third place in the drivers' championship. "It's the best rally in the world, the one everyone wants to win, so to finish on the podium is really cool!" he said. "You want to come to Finland to go fast but to get a podium is more than we expected. It's been a great team effort. Stephane [Prevott - co-driver] did a great job and that meant I could do my best."

Dani Sordo was fourth in the second C4 WRC, giving the Citroen Total team 15 more points in the manufacturers' contest and moving them up to new total of 105 - just 3 short of series leaders the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team. "It's a shame not to get the podium I wanted, but fourth place and five points is good for Citroen," said Sordo. "It's good for my confidence too, and I hope that will help for the next round in Germany - I'll try hard for a win there."

Rounding out the top five was Stobart VK M-Sport Ford driver Henning Solberg. "I'm happy to get some more points but I have some work to do on my performance," said Solberg. "I had third place here but I wasn't able to keep it. When I get home I'm going to work on my mental strength; I want to be able to hold on to good positions when I get them in future."

Result :

Pos	No	Driver	Time	Diff Next	Diff 1st
1.	1	Sébastien LOEB	2:54:05.5	0.0	0.0
2.	3	Mikko HIRVONEN	2:54:14.5	+9.0	+9.0
3.	6	Chris ATKINSON	2:57:22.5	+3:08.0	+3:17.0
4.	2	Dani SORDO	2:57:36.4	+13.9	+3:30.9
5.	8	Henning SOLBERG	2:58:03.2	+26.8	+3:57.7
6.	5	Petter SOLBERG	2:58:09.6	+6.4	+4:04.1
7.	20	Matti RANTANEN	3:00:16.6	+2:07.0	+6:11.1
8.	11	Toni GARDEMEISTER	3:02:24.2	+2:07.6	+8:18.7
9.	16	Matthew WILSON	3:02:42.8	+18.6	+8:37.3
10.	14	Conrad RAUTENBACH	3:04:36.4	+1:53.6	+10:30.9

Drivers' championship standings : After 9 rounds

Pos.	Driver	National	Team	Point
1.	M. HIRVONEN	Finland	BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team	67
2.	S. LOEB	France	Citroen Total World Rally Team	66
3.	C. ATKINSON	Australia	Subaru World Rally Team	37
4.	D. SORDO	Spain	Citroen Total World Rally Team	35
5.	J. LATVALA	Finland	BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team	34
6.	P. SOLBERG	Norway	Subaru World Rally Team	23
7.	H. SOLBERG	Norway	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	20
8.	G. GALLI	Italy	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	17
9.	M. WILSON	England	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	12
10.	F. VILLAGRA	Argentina	Munchi's Ford World Rally Team	8

Manufacturers' championship standings : After 9 rounds

Pos.	Team	Point
1.	BP FORD ABU DHABI WORLD RALLY TEAM	108
2.	CITROEN TOTAL WRT	105
3.	SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM	62
4.	STOBART VK M-SPORT FORD RALLY TEAM	45
5.	MUNCHI'S FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM	19
6.	SUZUKI WORLD RALLY TEAM	12

[Source : WRC]