Mikko Hirvonen

He may be the pallid, baby-faced counterpart to his louche, devil-may-care rival, but Mikko Hirvonen has proven the driver most capable of taking the fight to Sebastien Loeb in the World Rally Championship.

And now, thanks to a one-off outing in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, Hirvonen is the first Castrol EDGE Performer of the Month in the Castrol Rankings, topping the scorers in January 2010.

The 29-year-old Finn's victory on the Monte Carlo Rally was a fairy tale result. It was the IRC debut for the Ford Fiesta S2000, the new Super 2000 machine prepared by the M-Sport operation of Malcolm Wilson, which runs the factory Ford Focus team in the WRC. Hirvonen, who was pipped to last year's WRC title by Loeb, was the logical choice to drive it. And he responded by leading the rally from start-to-finish.

The result boosted Hirvonen to fifth in the Castrol Rankings and laid the bedrock of what could be a climb up the table - as long as his WRC campaign in Wilson's factory Ford Focus machines goes to plan.

Hirvonen started rallying at the age of 17 in an Opel Kadett, before rising through the Finnish ranks. In 2002 he won the Formula 2 class in his national championship in a Volkswagen Golf Kit Car, and then launched himself into the WRC

In 2003, Hirvonen competed as the third, 'junior', driver in the Ford WRC line-up, before joining Subaru for the following year. It was a disappointing campaign, with fourth places in Argentina and Australia his best results, and he was left without a factory drive for 2005.

Ranking Year

Driving a two-year-old Ford Focus, Hirvonen ran as a privateer, and went some way towards rebuilding his reputation with some strong showings, which included a third place in Catalunya.

That brought him back to prominence, and Hirvonen rejoined Ford for the 2006 season as number two to the great Marcus Gronholm. During that season he scored his maiden WRC victory, in Australia, and finished third in the championship. The following season he took three wins on his way to another season-ending third position. For the second year running, Gronholm and Hirvonen had earned Ford the manufacturers' WRC title.

With Gronholm's retirement, Hirvonen became the number one in the Ford team for 2008. Although he showed admirable consistency in becoming the first driver in history to score points in every round of a WRC season, his reputation took something of a knock. New team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala had shown Hirvonen-shading speed, although the youngster was also pretty ragged.

Hirvonen emerged from that shade in 2009, when four successive mid-season wins meant he led the WRC going into the final round: Rally GB. Hirvonen finished that event second, behind Loeb, and lost the title by just a single point.

The coming season is one in which Hirvonen has a chance to establish himself as a rallying great, but it promises to be an adventure along the way. As long as that impromptu Monte-winning IRC sojourn, he has the threat of competing against an out-of-retirement Gronholm on the opening round of the WRC in Sweden this month: what's more, Gronholm is in a Ford!

And, whatever he does, Hirvonen will be aware that the world's attention will be on his compatriot, 2007 Formula 1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who makes a full-time switch to rallying with Citroen. There's another man with a louche, devil may-care image to vanquish!