Loeb predicts tough Rally Finland

With less than a month to go until Rally Finland gets underway, Sebastien Loeb has highlighted the high-speed gravel contest as the event where he expects to see Ford’s challenge for World Rally Championship honours reignited this season.

The Citroen C4 WRC driver is 50 points clear of Ford’s nearest challenger, Mikko Hirvonen who is running third in the WRC standings. But the Frenchman is taking nothing for granted despite winning three of the first six rallies of the season.

“In Finland I am sure Ford will come back with their two Finnish drivers,” said Loeb. “I expect them to be really fast at home, they were last year.”

Having won the legendary Rally Finland in 2008, Loeb was forced to give best to home-grown hero Hirvonen last year in a final-day thriller which ended with the Ford driver breaking his Rally Finland duck to win the event by 25 seconds.

Ford will carry out a four-day test in Finland ahead of the Jyvaskyla-based, two-day event which gets underway with a spectator stage on the evening of 29 July.

Loeb admitted he had been surprised at the absence of a prolonged threat from either Ford driver through the first half of the season, after Hirvonen made the best of starts with a win on the Rally Sweden opener.

“Mikko seems to be a bit behind,” said Loeb, “and I’m surprised about that. It seems the level is higher than last year, because our car is the same [as it was in 2009]. It seems difficult for them to follow the rhythm, but we are going flat out all of the time.”

Before the trip to Finland however, the WRC will make its first appearance in Bulgaria when the country hosts round seven of the series in the ski resort of Borovetz from 8-11 July.

The all-asphalt rally is expected to favour the factory Citroens of Loeb and team-mate Dani Sordo, although Hirvonen will start the event on a high following his success on the non-championship Serbia Rally, which used similar roads as those found in Bulgaria.