Further down the order, Subaru's Petter Solberg was fifth. 'Hollywood' was slowed on day 1 with an engine misfire on the first loop, but other than that didn't really have any issues with his Impreza.

He closed in on Hirvonen on Saturday and got the gap down from 26 seconds to 12.6 seconds post-SS13, before dropping back a bit in the afternoon. He lost further ground on Sunday and eventually finished 38.1 seconds adrift.

Guy Wilks came in sixth following an impressive showing in his privately entered Impreza. The Englishman set 17 top-ten stage times in total during the event and was even second quickest on the final 'proper' stage, Donegal Bay. It is the first time he has scored 'senior' WRC points and will give him a boost ahead of Rally GB, where he will be out to try and win the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.

Fellow countryman, Matthew Wilson was next up in the 'third' Stobart Ford car, to score points for the second event in succession – and the third time this year. Although he struggled at times in the end he did enough to take two more championship points.

Gareth MacHale rounded out the top eight, with Andreas Mikkelsen ninth and FIA Production Car World Rally Championship category winner, Niall McShea tenth.

McShea took the lead in the PWRC on the penultimate test when Armindo Araujo went out. McShea eventually finished 44.1 seconds up on Gabriel Pozzo.

Second place was good enough though for Pozzo to keep his PWRC title hopes alive and he now needs to win Rally GB to overhaul Toshi Arai and take the Production crown.

Nasser Al-Attiyah was third in the PWRC category, 4 minute 31 seconds off the lead, while Simone Campedelli and Stepan Vojtech completed the top five.

Mark Higgins, who led the PWRC category for much of the event, did not finish. He rolled out on the final stage on Saturday, throwing away a 30-second lead and his hopes of taking the PWRC title.

Of the rest, Henning Solberg finished 16th after going off the road on day 1 in SS8. He re-started on Saturday under the SupeRally and picked up three manufacturers' points for his efforts. Those points, combined with the 6 scored by Latvala, moves the Stobart team up to third in the manufacturers', 1 point ahead of Subaru.