Hänninen to celebrate Christmas in style

Juho Hänninen will celebrate Christmas today with a healthy serving of pork and fish, he has revealed.

The Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion is back in his native Finland to savour a family Christmas and celebrate his title-winning season with Škoda Motorsport.

Hänninen, who was co-driven to IRC title glory by Mikko Markkula, has enjoyed a memorable 12 months during which he became the fourth driver to win the coveted IRC crown on the back of three impressive victories in his Fabia Super 2000.

“The last few weeks have been very busy with testing and some television work in Czech Republic so it is nice to be at home with my family together relaxing,” said the 29-year-old ace. “I will be having a huge amount of pork for my main course and there will also be some fish dishes with things we have caught from the lake before it became frozen. I will have some cakes for dessert but our first course is actually a bit like a dessert with a rice porridge in a good sweet sauce.”

Hänninen, who plans to spend some of Christmas day playing with his three-month-old nephew, admitted that his busy schedule in the build up to the festive season had made buying presents for his family and friends rather difficult.

“I actually gave some money to my little sister and got her to buy the presents,” said the five-time IRC event winner. “Some of the presents are books with a good sense of humour. They will make people laugh.”

Before settling down for his family lunch, Hänninen had a special message to the IRC fans. “I want to thank all the fans for the huge amount of support they have given to me this year. I hope you are now all able to have a fun and relaxing Christmas and you will be at Rallye Monte-Carlo to watch me next month. Hopefully I can win.”