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Mikko Hirvonen - Source: Reuters
Finland's Mikko Hirvonen led the his home rally by 3.3 seconds from world champion Sebastien Loeb after Saturday's nine stages.
Citroen driver Loeb of France, who is bidding for his sixth consecutive world championship title, won the concluding 2.06-km Killeri 2 course, also called the Super Special stage.
The Finnish Rally appears to have become a two-team affair as Loeb's Spanish team mate Daniel Sordo is third and Hirvonen's Ford colleague and countryman Jari-Matti Latvala finished fourth.
"It's been a good day for me, definitely a lot better than last year, and there haven't been any problems, so it looks good at the moment," Hirvonen told the World Rally Championship website after Saturday's penultimate stage.
"It's going to be a difficult fight with Sebastien, and for sure he's not going to give up. I did ask him this morning before the first stage if he could give me a birthday present, like a one minute lead, but in the end he only gave me four seconds so we need to keep on fighting," added the Finn who was 29 on Friday."
Hirvonen leads Loeb in the overall world championship standings by one point.
"It was a difficult start," said Loeb, winner here in 2008. "Last year I found the right rhythm here straight away, this year it was a bit more difficult."
"Also we started with a different car setting and I couldn't be confident with it. I made some changes to the diffs, the feeling was better and could take that confidence to push really hard, but Mikko is pushing very hard too."
Former Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who is making his WRC debut in an Abarth Grande Punto S2000, finished the day in 17th place, seven minutes and 5.1 seconds behind Hirvonen.
The Finnish Rally resumes on Sunday and is concluded on Monday.
