One thing can be said with certainty regarding Jari-Matti Latvala: the young Finn was impressive this year. Gaining in experience and confidence with every round of the 2007 season, he performed very well with Stobart Ford and rightly deserved a nomination with the works Ford team.

"At the start of this year I set myself some goals and have achieved more than I thought I would, so it really has been quite fantastic," reported Latvala.

"Prior to this year my best result was fourth place, so for 2007 I wanted to do better and in Ireland we achieved this by finishing on the podium next to Sebastien (Loeb) and Dani (Sordo)," the former Stobart driver related.

The newly-appointed official Ford driver then continued with a tally of his personal top five favourite moments of the 2007 WRC season.

"For me there have been five things that really stand out. My first ever fastest stage time came in Norway, then in Sardinia I lead a WRC event for the first time. The third was in Germany when I got my first tarmac point - this meant a lot as I have had lots of accidents on tarmac in the past. Fourth was the podium in Ireland and the fifth best moment this year was Rally GB and winning more than half the stages in the rally," he enumerated.

"This is something I didn't think I could achieve so early in my career," Latvala proudly concluded.