2009 Rally Finland

2009 Rally Finland 59th Neste Oil Rally Finland
Round 9 of the 2009 World Rally Championship ← Previous event Next event →
Conrad Rautenbach driving a Citroën C4 WRC
Host country	Finland
Rally base	Jyväskylä
Dates run	30 July – 2 August 2009
Stages	23 (345.15 km; 214.47 mi)
Stage surface	Gravel
Results
Overall winner	Mikko Hirvonen BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT
Crews	90 at start, 61 at finish
Picture gallery on Wikimedia Commons

The 2009 Neste Oil Rally Finland was the 59th running of the Rally Finland and the ninth round of the 2009 World Rally Championship season. The rally consisted of 23 special stages and was won by Ford's Mikko Hirvonen. This marked his third victory in a row and his first in his home event. Last year's winner Sébastien Loeb of Citroën finished second and took his first podium since the Rally Argentina back in April. Jari-Matti Latvala beat Dani Sordo to the final podium spot.

Entries

The final entry list included 90 crews – the highest number in any event this season. 18 drivers contested the event in the top category World Rally Car and ten were registered for the Junior World Rally Championship. In addition to usual names, Matti Rantanen, who finished seventh in last year's event in a private Ford Focus RS WRC 06, partnered Federico Villagra in the Munchi's Ford World Rally Team and drove the 2008-spec Focus WRC.

Ferrari's 2007 Formula One world champion Kimi Räikkönen made his WRC debut at the event. This was also his first rally on gravel, after competing in two snow rallies in Finland and in a tarmac rally in Italy. As previously, he drove the Super 2000 class Fiat Grande Punto Abarth prepared by Tommi Mäkinen Racing. Räikkönen faced competition from other S2000 entrants such as Juho Hänninen, Anton Alén and Janne Tuohino and from Group N drivers such as Patrik Flodin. Former Stobart M-Sport Ford driver Urmo Aava entered the event in a Honda Civic Type-R R3.

Summary

Petter Solberg on the Killeri super special stage

As in the previous year's event, the battle for the win was between the title contenders Mikko Hirvonen of Ford and Sébastien Loeb of Citroën. Although Loeb proved faster on the opening super special stage, Hirvonen took the lead when the rally really got underway on Friday, and began building up a lead by about a second per stage. Loeb backed off and settled for second after damaging a tyre and losing 13 seconds on SS15. Hirvonen's win was his first in his home event, after finishing runner-up to Marcus Grönholm in 2007 and to Loeb in 2008. Jari-Matti Latvala, who suffered from food poisoning on day two, passed Dani Sordo to take his first podium in his home event. Petter Solberg also looked set to challenge for a podium place, but suffered a puncture and then went wide and got stuck in a ditch right at the end of the fourth stage.

Red Bull Rally Team's Juho Hänninen won the Group N class in a Škoda Fabia S2000.

Munchi's Ford driver Matti Rantanen took a career-best fifth place in only his second rally in a World Rally Car. After Stobart's Henning Solberg, Rantanen's main challenger for the position, retired with a broken suspension, Rantanen was chased down by Citroën Junior Team's Sébastien Ogier. Ogier closed to within 0.6 seconds before the final stage but a time only 0.3 seconds faster than Rantanen's kept him in sixth place. Ogier's teammates Evgeny Novikov and Conrad Rautenbach both crashed out. Novikov crashed on both Friday and Saturday mornings while Rautenbach held ninth place until his accident on the penultimate stage.

Jari Ketomaa made his World Rally Car debut in a private Subaru Impreza WRC2007 and was another driver to challenge for fifth, the "best of the rest" position. He incurred a puncture and struggled with steering damage on Friday, losing over a minute, but recovered to overtake Stobart's Matthew Wilson for eighth and then began closing in on Mads Østberg in a year newer Impreza WRC. As the Norwegian crashed out on SS19, Ketomaa took the seventh place and his first-ever WRC points, and Wilson eighth and his first-ever point in the Rally Finland. Khalid al-Qassimi finished ninth and production class winner Juho Hänninen beat Munchi's Federico Villagra for tenth place. Martin Prokop won the Junior World Rally Championship category and secured the junior world title. Crowd favourite Kimi Räikkönen impressed in his WRC debut. Despite engine trouble, he held third place in the production class until rolling out at exactly the same place as Østberg. Räikkönen's performance drew praise from the top rally drivers.

Results

Pos.	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time	Difference	Points
WRC
1	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC 09	2:50:40.9	0.0	10
2	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	2:51:06.0	+25.1	8
3	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC 09	2:51:30.8	+49.9	6
4	Dani Sordo	Marc Martí	Citroën C4 WRC	2:51:47.0	+1:06.1	5
5	Matti Rantanen	Mikko Lukka	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	2:54:59.1	+4:18.2	4
6	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Citroën C4 WRC	2:54:59.4	+4:18.5	3
7	Jari Ketomaa	Mika Stenberg	Subaru Impreza WRC 2007	2:55:48.4	+5:07.5	2
8	Matthew Wilson	Scott Martin	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	2:57:14.5	+6:33.6	1
JWRC
1	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Citroën C2 S1600	3:17:03.1	0.0	10
2	Kalle Pinomäki	Matti Kaskinen	Renault Clio R3	3:17:58.6	+55.5	8
3	Michał Kościuszko	Maciek Szczepaniak	Suzuki Swift S1600	3:20:24.0	+3:20.9	6
4	Aaron Nikolai Burkart	Michael Kölbach	Suzuki Swift S1600	3:20:53.5	+3:50.4	5
5	Mark Wallenwein	Stefan Kopczyk	Renault Clio R3	3:30:28.6	+13:25.5	4
6	Simone Bertolotti	Luca Celestini	Suzuki Swift S1600	3:34:19.0	+17:15.9	3
7	Hans Weijs, Jr.	Bjorn Degandt	Citroën C2 S1600	3:51:17.8	+34:14.7	2

Special stages

Day	Stage	Time (EEST)	Name	Length	Winner	Time	Rally leader
1 (30-31 Jul)	SS1	19:00	Killeri 1	2.06 km	Sébastien Loeb	1:20.3	Sébastien Loeb
	SS2	7:38	Jukojärvi 1	22.29 km	Mikko Hirvonen	10:36.2	Mikko Hirvonen
	SS3	8:11	Kruununperä 1	13.51 km	Mikko Hirvonen	6:29.9
	SS4	8:59	Mökkiperä 1	13.64 km	Sébastien Loeb	6:42.2
	SS5	9:46	Palsankylä 1	13.92 km	Sébastien Loeb	7:06.7
	SS6	13:02	Jukojärvi 2	22.29 km	Mikko Hirvonen	10:25.2
	SS7	13:35	Kruununperä 2	13.51 km	Mikko Hirvonen	6:22.3
	SS8	14:23	Mökkiperä 2	13.64 km	Sébastien Loeb	6:37.0
	SS9	15:10	Palsankylä 2	13.92 km	Sébastien Loeb	7:01.6
	SS10	20:00	Killeri 2	2.06 km	Sébastien Loeb	1:20.2
2 (1 Aug)	SS11	7:13	Leustu 1	21.35 km	Mikko Hirvonen	10:04.8
	SS12	8:02	Himos 1	20.94 km	Mikko Hirvonen	10:31.7
	SS13	9:25	Surkee 1	14.95 km	Mikko Hirvonen	8:01.2
	SS14	11:37	Leustu 2	21.35 km	Mikko Hirvonen	10:03.4
	SS15	12:26	Himos 2	20.94 km	Mikko Hirvonen	10:35.4
	SS16	13:49	Surkee 2	14.95 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	7:59.7
	SS17	16:11	Urria	12.75 km	Mikko Hirvonen	5:55.5
	SS18	17:19	Kavala	10.35 km	Jari-Matti Latvala Sébastien Ogier	5:10.1
	SS19	17:52	Väärinmaja	29.29 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	14:56.3
3 (2 Aug)	SS20	8:17	Hannula	10.82 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	5:41.1
	SS21	8:58	Myhinpää 1	15.06 km	Sébastien Loeb	6:59.1
	SS22	10:51	Myhinpää 2	15.06 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	6:52.1
	SS23	12:18	Ruuhimäki	6.5 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	3:12.4

Championship standings after the event

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver IRL NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRC POL FIN AUS ESP GBR  Pts  1 Mikko Hirvonen 3 2 2 2 Ret 2 1 1 1 68 2 Sébastien Loeb 1 1 1 1 1 4 Ret 7 2 65 3 Dani Sordo 2 5 4 3 2 23 12 2 4 44 4 Jari-Matti Latvala 14 3 12 Ret 6 1 3 Ret 3 31 5 Henning Solberg 4 4 18 5 3 8 15 3 30 27 6 Petter Solberg 6 3 4 Ret 3 Ret 4 Ret 25 7 Matthew Wilson 7 7 5 Ret 5 6 14 5 8 20 8 Sébastien Ogier 6 10 Ret 17 7 Ret 2 Ret 6 16 9 Federico Villagra 7 7 4 Ret 4 11 14 10 Conrad Rautenbach 18 Ret 6 Ret Ret 9 5 8 Ret 8 11 Mads Østberg 9 6 7 7 Ret Ret 7 12 Khalid al-Qassimi 8 8 8 16 6 9 6 13 Evgeny Novikov 12 Ret Ret 5 16 9 Ret 4 Chris Atkinson 5 4 Matti Rantanen 5 4 16 Krzysztof Hołowczyc 6 3 17 Jari Ketomaa 7 2 18 Nasser Al-Attiyah 11 16 8 10 9 1 Urmo Aava 10 8 29 1 Lambros Athanassoulas 8 1 Pos Driver IRL NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRC POL FIN AUS ESP GBR Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Withdrew entry before the event (WD)

Manufacturers' championship

Pos	Team	Event												Total points
		IRL	NOR	CYP	POR	ARG	ITA	GRC	POL	FIN	AUS	ESP	GBR
1	Citroën Total World Rally Team	18	14	16	16	18	8	4	12	13				119
2	BP Ford World Rally Team	8	14	10	8	3	18	18	10	16				105
3	Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team	8	8	6	5	10	7	5	11	4				64
4	Citroën Junior Team	5	2	4	0	2	5	6	5	4				33
5	Munchi's Ford World Rally Team	0	0	3	4	5	0	6	0	2				20

External links

• Official website
• Event at WRC.com

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Previous year: 2008 Rally Finland	Rally Finland	Next year: 2010 Rally Finland