Ogier says Finland win possible

Sebastian Ogier has said he can win next week's Rally Finland, on only his fourth time tackling the event.

The Citroen driver says he knows that victory will be difficult, but not impossible: "Julien [Ingrassia] and I are motivated like never before. We know it's going to be one of the most difficult rallies of the year as we're up against the Finns. But beating them isn't impossible.”

Ogier will tackle the event for the third time in a WRC car next weekend. His first attempt was in a Citroen C2 R2 Max in 2008, in 35^th overall. He graduated to the Citroen Junior Team for 2009, and thus gaining a World Rally Car drive. He took 6^th at the end. Last year he finished second, 10 secs behind winner Jari-Matti Latvala.

"Last year, I was a bit surprised to finish so close to the winner [Latvala]. And we lost the ten seconds at the start of the rally when we were finding our marks."

The French have a good history in Finland, with two of the four non-Nordics ever to win the rally being French, the two drivers being Didier Auriol and Sebastian Loeb. Auriol had a good history on the event, taking, aside from his 1992 victory, four podiums. Loeb, too, has a good history, taking five podiums and a win in the last six years. Ogier will be looking to follow in the footsteps of the two French rally legends.

Ogier says he will push from the start, something he didn't do last year, something he says cost him victory on last year's event: "My aim is to put myself in a confident frame of mind right from the green light and to really push in the opening kilometres. That's what was missing last year."

The Frenchman knows that victory will be a tall order, especially against the brace of Finns that are taking part in this year's event. Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala, Kimi Raikkonen, Matti Rantanen, Jari Ketomaa, Janne Tuohino and Mattias Therman are all World Rally Car mounted, and all are looking for victory on their home event. Even with this list of possible winners, Ogier is still convinced that he can overcome all of them to win the 'Gravel Grand Prix'.

"I'm going to do everything I can to be on the pace right from the first stage," said Ogier. "It's important to bag a big haul of points in Finland. We know it's going to be a difficult rally against local drivers who are always redoubtable on their home turf. But a victory here isn't beyond our grasp.”