Countdown to Neste Oil Rally Finland
After the longest break of the season so far, the 2009 World Rally Championship returns next week with one of its undoubted highlights, Rally Finland.
And if any event was worth the long wait, it's Finland. First run in 1951, the Rally of the 1000 Lakes, as it is known, has become one of the most prestigious, and popular, in the calendar.
Finland is known as the spiritual home of rallying, thanks to its abundance of wide, smooth gravel roads - which are perfect for the sport - and the record breaking achievements of its drivers who grew up learning how to drive them flat out.
Names like Vatanen, Gronholm, Makinen, and Kankkunen each learned their craft here before going on to conquer the world - ensuring the WRC drivers' trophy has remained in Finnish hands for 13 years since 1979
*its this rally that F1 Driver Kimi Raikkonen, will make is debut appearance
And if any event was worth the long wait, it's Finland. First run in 1951, the Rally of the 1000 Lakes, as it is known, has become one of the most prestigious, and popular, in the calendar.
Finland is known as the spiritual home of rallying, thanks to its abundance of wide, smooth gravel roads - which are perfect for the sport - and the record breaking achievements of its drivers who grew up learning how to drive them flat out.
Names like Vatanen, Gronholm, Makinen, and Kankkunen each learned their craft here before going on to conquer the world - ensuring the WRC drivers' trophy has remained in Finnish hands for 13 years since 1979
*its this rally that F1 Driver Kimi Raikkonen, will make is debut appearance
