Finland's love affair with rallying and the affinity of their drivers to New Zealand's flowing gravel roads should see them play a key role in next week's round of the World Rally Championship here.

Drivers from Finland have won half of all World Rally titles in the last 30 years, and triumphed on the famous gravel roads in New Zealand 10 times.

The 38th Rally New Zealand, Round 11 of the FIA World Rally Championship, will be based in Hamilton, heading to the King Country, Waikato and Franklin districts from next Thursday.

Topping the flying Finns expected to play a staring role next week is current World Rally Championship point's leader Marcus Gronhölm, who propelled the 2007 Ford Focus RS World Rally car to victory on debut in Finland earlier this month. 

Second at that event and well ahead of the others, 27 year old Mikko Hirvonen completed a Ford and Finland one-two.

Capping off the Finnish-Ford monopoly is 22-year old Jari-Matti Latvala who has shown sufficient front-running speed this year for defending champion Sébastien Loeb (France) to tip him as future world champion.

The three form Finnish drivers have a distinct advantage with what championship leader Gronhölm believes are unique similarities between the two countries, who says the only real difference is the degree of camber and twist encountered in New Zealand:

"They are quite similar in several ways.  The roads in both countries are fast, flowing and smooth and great fun to drive on.  The stages in New Zealand are more cambered than those in Finland and obviously they don't have the big jumps that we have at home.  Some sections are also quite twisty and there is virtually nowhere in Finland that is twisty," said Gronhölm.

With Gronhölm's dominance of the 2007 season and four previous victories at Rally New Zealand, he believes the new Ford they will use for the rally will have a big advantage:

"We saw in Finland that we've made a step forward with the new Focus RS WRC which was reliable all weekend and never missed a beat.  The top speed has increased and in Finland, which is the fastest rally in the championship that made a difference.  That step forward should help us in New Zealand as well."

Leading the driver standings by eight points, Gronhölm, third placed Hirvonen and learning star Latvala are expected to set the pace during the 18 stage, 353km competition.

Along with familiar stages from the 2006 Rally New Zealand, the three-day rally incorporates a double-run of the Whaanga Coast.  While the road surface may be similar for the Finnish drivers, the scenic backdrop to their driver talent can only be experienced in New Zealand.

Rally New Zealand starts with the traditional shakedown test at Mystery Creek next Thursday ahead of the Ceremonial Start in downtown Hamilton on that evening.

The rally proper begins on Friday 31 August in the Otorohanga and Waitomo region, day two is in the Franklin District and northern Waikato and final day in Raglan, with super special stages each day back at the rally headquarters and service park at Mystery Creek.