The Intercontinental Rally Challenge's fourth round of the year, Rally Russia, was dominated by a strong drive from beginning to end courtesy of Finnish driver Juho Hanninen. As if to mark his hold on the event, Hanninen recorded the fastest time on the final rain-soaked Lesogorskiy stage.

Racing his Peugeot 207 Super 2000 across the finish line with a fastest time of 12:21.3 over the last 20-kilometre distance to cover, Hanninen left second-placed Anton Alen a full 10.9 seconds behind, leaving no doubt as to his control of the situation.

Alen's Abarth teammate, Giandomenico Basso, took third place aboard his Grande Punto S2000 ahead of his pursuer, Freddy Loix. In turn, the five-time Rally Ypres winner was followed a few seconds behind by his Peugeot Belgium-Luxemburg teammate Nicolas Vouilloz, who took fifth position.

Coincidentally, the top five finishers of this stage also happen to be the top five drivers on the final Rally Russia leaderboard...

Over a minute away from the quickest time across this route, Alexey Sourenko's Mitsubishi claimed the sixth spot, closely followed by Jan Kopecky's Peugeot.

At the wheel of a two-wheel-drive Citroen C2-R2 Max, Simon Jean-Joseph established his best stage result when he drove into eighth place, only a few seconds off Kopecky's time.

The top ten was completed by Oleg Antropov and Andrey Yadov, both driving Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IXs.

Very unfortunately, young Evgeny Novikov stopped and retired his Subaru Impreza on this final stage, thereby preventing the very talented 18-year-old from taking a truly deserved second-place finish. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that Novikov will be seen again on the world scene after such a strong performance.

Standing on the top step of the Rally Russia podium, we find Juho Hanninen, with a 2:11.2 lead on his nearest opponent following Novikov's retirement. The podium is therefore completed by the Abarth teammates, Anton Alen and Giandomenico Basso.

The overall top five is rounded off by another pair of teammates, Belgium Peugeot-Luxemburg drivers Freddy Loix and Nicolas Vouilloz. Although not on the podium, Vouilloz nonetheless succeeded in joining Luca Rossetti at the head of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge series.

The next IRC round will take place in Portugal with the Rali Vinho Madeira, August 1-2.