Rather than an overriding onus on endurance and reliability as in recent rallies, Finland marks a return to flat-out no-compromise competition right from the start.
The Rally Finland comprises 24 stages, of which five are new, totalling 340.42 competitive kilometres. The event starts with the traditional spectator stage at the Killeri trotting track on Thursday night. Run at the end of their summer, the temperature is expected to be around 20 degrees Celsius, milder than many would expect for northern Scandinavia.
FIA World Rally Championship news:
Mikko Hirvonen re-took the lead in the race for the 2008 drivers’ title following his tactical win on the Rally of Turkey back in mid-June, prior to the summer break.
His second win of the season increased his points’ tally to 59 points and with
Sebastien Loeb 'only' finishing third, the Frenchman is now 3 points adrift.
Jari-Matti Latvala is third in the rankings - albeit 25 points off his team-mate.
In the Manufacturers' championship the
BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT continues to lead and following its 1-2 finish in Kemer, the 'Blue Oval' extended the lead over
Citroen from 2 points to 9.
Since Turkey there have been a number of developments in relation to the WRC, the main being that following the World Motor Sport Council meeting on June 25 the FIA has been 'directed' to 'finalise negotiations for the appointment of a central promoter for the Word Rally Championship' – something that the manufacturers’ are keen to see happen as soon as possible.
A statement from the FIA last month also added that from 2010, 'Group N and S2000 cars will be renamed Superproduction cars', while 'Group R cars will become known as Production cars'.
In addition Cyprus and Poland have both been approved for the 2009 calendar following the observers' reports.
The schedules for the 2009 FIA Production Car World Rally Championship and 2009 FIA Junior World Rally Championship were also released – with eight events included in both. The rounds in Cyprus, Portugal, Argentina and Italy will have dual status, just like Finland this season.
