After the six-week summer break, the WRC regulars return to serious business with one of the season’s
most demanding fixtures. This year’s format features 342.08km of competitive action divided into 24
stages, twelve of which will be run just once, while there are 80km that are new to the drivers. Recce
consequently promises to play a key role, and Marc and Daniel face the prospect of having to copy out
copious pages of notes.

Today, there are fewer of the celebrated jumps that helped forge the legend of the 1000 Lakes in the
past, but the subtleties of the Finnish gravel roads are as complex to grasp as ever. It takes several visits
to get a real feel for their unique difficulties…

”It’s not just the drivers who need experience of this event; the engineers also need a certain
understanding of the roads before they can really hope to find the most suitable compromises when
setting up the cars,” observes Citroën Sport’s Technical Manager Xavier Mestelan-Pinon. ”The ideal set-up
isn’t easy to find for these ultra-fast roads, but a nicely balanced car is vital. We are pleased with the
results of our pre-event testing in July and also by the job Dani and Marc did on the event they contested.
Citroën has yet to win here and it would be nice if we could succeed at last this year. But we are taking
things one step at a time; our past experience of Rally Finland tends to make us particularly wary of this
event.”

Following their recent break, Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena are particularly fired up as they prepare to
tackle the last seven rounds of the season, beginning with Finland. ”We have never won this event and
that is one of the targets I set myself for 2008,” recalls Seb. ”But however dearly I would love to win it,
and despite the ground that would enable us to make up in the Drivers’ standings, I have no intention of
taking any more risks than usual just to add a fresh line to my personal record.”

”This time last year, we were nine points down. This year, the gap is just three points,” he continues. ”We
therefore can’t afford to make any mistakes, yet it is so easy to put a foot wrong in these forests where
you’re constantly driving on a knife edge, with all the concealed bends and the trees so very close! This
event will also allow us to see how the Pirelli Soft tyre performs. We won’t be allowed to re-cut its pattern
if there’s mud about, so that could cause a few surprises.”

Dani Sordo and Marc Martí resume world class action with their morale boosted by their recent success on
the Kouvola-based O.K. Auto-Ralli. ”It was first my win in a WRC car, and on gravel, too, so that was
particularly pleasing,” says Dani. ”I am aware that the competition wasn’t all that strong, though, and that
we will face stiffer opposition on the Rally Finland. I have felt comfortable over these fast stages and long
jumps on all my previous visits. I enjoy them, and the work we did in July should enable us be even more
competitive against the local specialists. I am pleased with the settings we have found for the different
types of surface we could well face, and I think we should be competitive with our C4. Our aim is to finish
as high up the order as possible with a view to scoring points for Citroën.”

Teksti: Risto Immonen
Kuva: Marko Mäkinen