Finally the four times world champion added to his credentials one of the last remaining major victories which had always eluded him, that of the Neste Oil Rally Finland, the traditional 1000 Lakes' Rally. He won in style, leading from start to finish, with an excellence of driving as well
as a little bit of luck. Taking advantage of the Citroen C4 WRC's preference for the narrow tracks which characterised this year's event, Sebastien Loeb ran most of the event with a lead of around a quarter minute. After a spin on the penultimate stage he finally finished just 9.0 seconds ahead of his championship rival Mikko Hirvonen, who now heads the Frenchman by one point in the Drivers' championship. Rains before the event had minimised the disadvantages of running first car on the road, making this a fair event, devoid of trickery and distrust which had lingered on through the summer after the Rally of Turkey.

None of the drivers on this event had ever won this rally before, Marcus Gronholm's career retirement at the end of 2007 effectively opening it up to others! Along with the British Rally this was a classic world championship event the Frenchman Loeb had never won before. Loeb was tailed for a long time by a gaggle of Fords, but as the rally progressed third placed Gigi Galli went off the road, and Chris Atkinson speeded up in his new Subaru, and the top three places were taken by different marques. Among all this activity there was a guest missing from the party. On stage three Jari-Matti Latvala went off the road and broke his steering, and this was very disappointing for the BP Ford Abu Dhabi team whose rivals Citroen Total scored points for a first and fourth places.

There was a lot of depression on the first Day 1 in the Subaru camp. Petter Solberg headed Atkinson in sixth and seventh places, without showing the hoped-for pace needed to challenge for victory. Then on Day 2 Solberg suffered transmission problems which created a lot of wheelspin, but Atkinson held his nerve and moved up the field to finish third. Even further off the pace was the Suzuki team. For half the rally it looked like while they might not have the pace, they had reliability, and then Toni Gardemeister was slowed by power steering problems. He continued, driving as hard as he dared, but when his teammate PG Andersson crashed out of the event and retired Gardemeister was told to make sure he reached the finish, which he did, in both Drivers' and Manufacturer's points zone, in eighth position.

The exit of the two Munchi's Ford team cars late on Saturday was a big disappointment, but already Matthew Wilson was ahead of them and came home ninth, out of the points. The young privateer Zimbabwean driver Conrad Rautenbach came tenth. Going extremely well in the early stages was fellow C4 privateer Urmo Aava, who had been up to third, but then slid off the road. Both Norwegian young drivers Andreas Mikkelsen and Mads Ostberg also left the road.

This rally featured not just one but both of the subsidiary championships, leading to the huge number of contenders taking part. In the Production category, Juha Salo showed impressive speed, building up a quarter minute buffer during Friday, but halfway through Saturday it all went wrong when he crashed heavily. Juho Hanninen, who was biding his time, suddenly found himself with a comfortable lead over the Swedish driver Patrik Flodin while in third place came Jussi Valimaki. Valimaki had found himself volunteered as a Guest championship driver by the organisers just five weeks before the event, and then had to search for funds and a car to spend them on. On the Friday he landed his car awkwardly and struggled through the rally in pain. In fourth place came the first of the Subarus, with the N14 version of Jari Ketomaa, who had lost time off the road on the Saturday, ahead of Oscar Svedlund's similar car. After the finish there was disappointment for Flodin who found himself excluded for a turbo irregularity. Main beneficiaries of Flodin's chagrin were Valimaki and Ketomaa, who rose to second and third respectively. In the championship, the winner Hanninen now has the tactical advantage of only having competed on three rallies as opposed to the four driven by the series leader Andreas Aigner (eight points ahead) and Ketomaa (two points behind). Aigner was competing in Finland as a non-championship entry. He was enjoying himself until he slid off the road into a lake.

In the JWRC category, Martin Prokop (Citroen) started off strongly but set-up problems on the Friday let Michal Kosciuszko (Suzuki) get in front. The Pole slid off the road on the Saturday morning letting Prokop ahead again and for nearly all the day there was a fantastic battle for the lead until Kosciuszko went off again leaving Prokop unchallenged. That dropped Kosciuszko behind Patrik Sandell for the rest of the event. Holding a steady fourth place was the Suzuki driver Jaan Molder but then he had a heavy crash which let Aaron Burkhart up to fourth. Of the 16 starters, 13 finished the rally. Alessandro Bettega retired when his Clio R3 broke its sump and lost its oil. The story of the event was that of Guy Wilks, in a non-championship Honda R3, who was the quickest of all the two-wheel drive cars and finished 19th, notwithstanding having to drive in rough roads behind all the championship entries, and being slowed by shock absorber troubles on the Saturday. Championship leader Sebastien Ogier, like Aigner, nominated this event as one of his compulsory passes but did the rally in a non-championship entry and finished. He still leads the series with 24 points from three events, ahead of Kosciuszko with 22 from four.

Loeb's little bit of luck came in the week before the rally. He was caught speeding during reconnaissance, at some 41kph over the speed limit in force. This was in the realm where the Police seize your driving licence, a customary walking-home scenario, but happily he escaped this fate. Then on the Saturday there was an extraordinary incident in which he went off the
road on a road section close to a refuelling zone, and needed the help of spectators to get him on his way again. But none of these incidents belittled his efforts. Loeb is only the fourth non Scandinavian driver to win the event, beating on their home ground the best that the home country had to offer. This was Loeb's 42nd World Rally win, and for the man already in rallying's stratosphere of achievements the next major challenge has to be to conquer the Wales Rally GB, not to mention a record fifth successive World title. In two week's time he goes to Germany, where he has already won for an astonishing six times running...

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