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Latvala wins Rally Finland

The Finn claims superb home victory

By Franck Drui

31 July 2010 - 16:47

Finn Jari-Matti Latvala sealed an historic victory on Neste Oil Rally Finland today, becoming the youngest driver to win the event since it joined the World Rally Championship in 1973.

Latvala, 25, took the lead on SS6 in his BP Ford Abu Dhabi team Focus RS WRC and held it ever since, successfully fending off a full-on attack today from Citroen Total team driver Sebastien Ogier.

Ogier finished second in his C4 World Rally Car, 10.1sec adrift of Latvala, while his Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb was third, 15.9sec further back, after a tense final day battle with Petter Solberg which was decided by only 4.7sec.

Today’s win was the fourth at World Championship level for Latvala, who is co-driven by Miikka Anttila. He scored his first on the 2008 Rally Sweden, when he became the youngest winner of a WRC rally. His most recent victory came just 12 weeks ago on the Rally of New Zealand.

Overall standings after SS19 :

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time
01	Jari-Matti LATVALA	Ford Focus WRC	2h31m29.6s
02	Sébastien OGIER	Citroën C4 WRC	+10.1s
03	Sébastien LOEB	Citroën C4 WRC	+26.0s
04	Petter SOLBERG	Citroën C4 WRC	+30.7s
05	Dani SORDO	Citroën C4 WRC	+1m45.0s
06	Matthew WILSON	Ford Focus WRC	+5m43.7s
07	Mads ÖTSBERG	Subaru Impreza WRC	+5m50.8s
08	Juha KANKKUNEN	Ford Focus WRC	+7m49.0s
09	Juho HÄNNINEN	Skoda Fabia S2000	+9m05.0s
10	Per Gunnar ANDERSSON	Skoda Fabia S2000	+10m15.7s
11	Patrik SANDELL	Skoda Fabia S2000	+10m35.0s
12	Toni GARDEMEISTER	Ford Fiesta S2000	+10m52.2s
13	Martin PROKOP	Ford Fiesta S2000	+13m12.2s
14	Mattias THERMAN	Ford Focus WRC	+13m51.4s
15	Marko KAKKO	Ford Fiesta S2000	+14m40.5s