On arrival to this little student town in central Finland you are met with an infinite forest of fir trees, yet BP-Ford Abu Dhabi driver Mikko Hirvonen, the leader of the World Rally Championship, says that to win his home rally this weekend, you must imagine you are driving on a barren, infertile landscape.

"To win Rally Finland you need to be brave," says Hirvonen from the hospitality suite of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority. "You need to go flat out and hope for the best. And you have to forget there are trees and just focus on the road."

Talk about not being able to see the wood for the trees - the United Nations estimate 75 per cent of the country is forest. Throw in a plethora of dangerously deep ditches, jumps more suited to Evel Knievel and rocks as sharp as a lumberjack's axe and you have an uncompromisingly spectacular race.

Nicknamed the 'Gravel Grand Prix', Rally Finland is the fastest race on the calendar and is notoriously difficult for non-Nordic drivers. Since its inception into the WRC in 1973, only three drivers from outside Sweden and Finland have finished top of the podium.

Hirvonen's title challenger, Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, will be keen to change that: Rally Finland remains the missing achievement on his Championship-winning CV.

The country bills itself as the "Spiritual Home of Rally" and it's difficult to argue when you see the turn out the four-day event gets.

The official population of the Scandinavian country is five million, yet 500,000 raucous rally fans have arrived in Jyvaskyla for a chance to take part in the action.

Draped in flags, singing songs and drinking vodka (Finland's national drink), many of the visiting fans are sleeping in tents. As much as that could be down to the fact every hotel in the city is fully booked, it's more likely due to a desire to be next to the action. The majority of the tents are pitched within metres of the gravel road that the cars will be driving on.

"The Finnish fans are unbelievable," says Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi, who is returning to the scene of his WRC debut.

"If you look at European countries, football is the No1 sport. Then you come over here and rally is No1. Have you ever heard of clubs from Finland travelling to the Champions League? I doubt it. It is the only European country not into football."

Hirvonen explains: "Rally is a national sport here and there is a long history of champions so there are a lot of idols for young boys to look up to.

"A lot of them want to be rally drivers and learn those skills and Finland is a place where you can practice fairly easily. But, of course, there are only a few of us lucky enough to make it to the top."

A "lucky few" perhaps, but certainly a fair few more than most countries. From two-time WRC title-holder Marcus Gronholm to Ferrari's Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen, Finland has produced a remarkable number of motorsports winners.

"I think when Finnish mothers deliver their babies, they are already, by nature, drivers," jokes Al Qassimi. "From every 10 babies I think five are born drivers."

Flying Finn Jari-Matti Latvala provides a more likely explanation: "The Finnish people are very competitive. We love our motorsports and in Finland, if you have a competition, you want to be better than your friends by driving rather than spoiling your friend's race. It is good competition. And, also, we start from a very young age."

Latvala drove his first rally car when he was eight years old – a Ford Escort 1.1 – and Hirvonen was five when he first got behind the wheel, using pillows to keep him propped on the edge of his seat and able to reach the far-away foot pedals.

"There was always some car that I could use and we had a lake near my house so we made a track on the ice," says Hirvonen, who celebrated his 28th birthday yesterday. "I wanted to be a rally driver when I was very young. There were maybe three or four of us who drove cars and we competed against each other for fun. That is why it would mean so much to me to win Rally Finland – my friends and family are all here. My house is only 5km down the road.

"But that also means there is a little bit more pressure on me. Last year, I was faster than Sebastien and this year I am leading the Championship. Everybody is waiting to see how I do in my home rally so there is a bit more pressure. But, then again, I have always been at my best under pressure and with my back to the wall."




Rule change

The FIA, motorsports international governing body, plans to reduce the number of rallies in a season from 15 to 12 as of next year. But it is the decision to overhaul the calendar by removing "classic" rally venues that has left some drivers questioning the proposal.

The current plan will see the 12 chosen rallies alternate annually with a set of 12 new venues. The result is that WRC mainstays Rally Great Britain, Rally Finland and Rally Deutschland will not feature for one season, before returning the year after.

BP-Ford Abu Dhabi driver Mikko Hirvonen says that while he agrees with a reduction in the quantity, he fears that the quality of the Championship may suffer.

"I think it will be a big change to alternate rallies; it will certainly be a big cost saver. But personally I don't think we should circulate all the rallies," he says. "I think we should have maybe six rallies that should stay on the calendar every year. Rallies that are well organised, such as Finland.

"Here we have great organisation and they plan it the whole year. But to have a year gap you will lose a lot of sponsorship and it will cause a lot of problems. It would be good to alternate the other six rallies though; it would expand the reach of the WRC."

The Finn's team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala is in agreement. He said: "In my opinion I think we should have six or eight classic rallies that are always very well organised, and the ones that are not so well organised should alternate."