Jari Ketomaa takes victory in Latvian ERC round

Ketomaa started Sunday's final six stages with a lead of 12.1s over Craig Breen and favourite to remain in front in his turbocharged Ford Fiesta on the high-speed ice-coated roads located around the town of Kuldiga.

And the Finn's victory was all but assured when Breen was slowed by a broken electrical cable on stage 12.

"I'm very happy with this rally and our performance," said Ketomaa, who was co-driven by Kimi Raikkonen's former navigator Kaj Lindstrom. "We knew when we found the rhythm we would be quick."

Breen, who won the opening five stages, settled for second in his normally-aspirated Peugeot 207, 31.0s behind Ketomaa.

Francois Delecour completed the podium in another Peugeot following a close battle with Mitsubishi driver Alexey Lukyanuk, which ended when the Russian stopped with a suspected mechanical problem on the penultimate stage.

Young Czech Jan Cerny took fourth after winning the final stage, a superspecial located at an artificial ski slope in the city of Ventspils.

Latvian driver Raimonds Kiesels completed the top five in his Autotek Mini with Vytautas Svedas the top Production Cup competitor in sixth place.

Pos  Driver             Car                       Time/Gap
 1.  Jari Ketomaa       Autotek Ford              2h08m15.7s
 2.  Craig Breen        Sainteloc Peugeot         + 31.0s
 3.  Francois Delecour  Kronos Peugeot            + 2m47.5s
 4.  Jan Cerny          Czech Skoda               + 3m03.4s
 5.  Raimonds Kisiels   Adapta Mini               + 5m46.3s
 6.  Vytautas Svedas    Juta Mitsubishi           + 5m55.7s
 7.  Aivis Egle         R-Evolution Mitsubishi    + 7m39.5s
 8.  Raul Jeets         OT Racing Mitsubishi      + 8m37.6s
 9.  Jaroslav Orsak     GPD Mitsubishi            + 8m48.9s
10.  Vitaliy Pushkar    Pro Mitsubishi            + 9m25.0s