Anton Alén capably upheld Abarth honour in Finland following the dramatic departure of Kimi Raikkonen and the Finnish youngster completed the final day's four stages to finish a strong second in Group N as well as claiming thirteenth place overall.

Anton Alén capably upheld Abarth honour on the 59th Neste Oil Rally Finland following the dramatic departure of Kimi Raikkonen on Saturday and the Finnish youngster completed the final day's four stages yesterday to finish in a very strong second place in Group N as well as claiming thirteenth position overall. The 26-year-old son of Fiat and Lancia rally legend Markku, Anton had something to prove on this 59th edition of the prestigious Rally Finland after having been dropped by the Abarth team on several occasions so far this year, and a good run in Finland, where he impressed behind the wheel of the Super 2000 Grande Punto Abarth two years ago, would also to serve as a timely confidence booster.

Alén had held a tight grip on second place in the Group N classification for most of the rally, although he wasn't able to match the blistering pace shown by Juho Hanninen in the single factory-supported Skoda Fabia S2000 and at the end of the day two he was 2 minutes and 33.3 seconds behind his fellow countryman, although Alén had wrapped up the day on the final stage SS19 (where Raikkonen had spectacularly rolled his way out of the rally) with a time just 5.8 seconds slower than the 28-year-old Skoda driver. Third placed Patrik Flodin (Subaru Impreza) was 2 minutes and 17.4 seconds behind Alén overnight.

With Raikkonen's car too badly damaged to be repaired to re-enter the final day under the SupeRally rule, Alén (who like the Ferrari Formula 1 star was driving a Grande Punto Abarth S2000 prepared by Tommi Mäkinen Racing) would be the sole surviving Scorpion representative to tackle the last day which would comprise of only four stages and 47.44 competitive kilometres. This meant that yesterday's third and final day of 59th Neste Oil Rally Finland was scheduled to be easily the shortest of the event. After leaving the Jyväskylä Park Ferme at 0650 for a 15-minute service, the drivers would then tackle four stages to the east, with no opportunity for servicing again before the finish in the town at 1316. The winning driver was scheduled to drive onto the podium, outside the Paviljonki complex, at 1400.

The final day kicked off with SS20, the 10.82 km long "Hannula" test, which saw Alén post a time just 3.5 seconds away from Hanninen, and with the departure from the timesheets of one of the top class cars, he was promoted to thirteenth position overall. "For us it was really pretty slippery but nothing special in there," the Abarth driver reported at the end of the stage. On SS21 Alén posted the fastest Group N time, 0.4 seconds quicker than the driver managed. Alén was 1.4 seconds behind his Super 2000 mounted rival through SS22, and the departure of another leading car pushed him up into twelfth spot. The final stage of the rally (SS23) saw Alén 3.7 seconds slower than Hanninen to complete the rally a fighting second in Group N, which added up to a very impressive twelfth place. He was eventually classified 2 minutes and 41.5 second behind the Group N winning Skoda Fabia S2000 of Hanninen which claimed an excellent tenth place overall. Alén though had been targeting class victory and the youngster wasn't too delighted with the result. "It was not what we were hoping for and our problems meant we have had to finish second which is not the result we wanted," he said at the finish.