in rallycross and maintaining his links with the BP-Ford WRT team in an "ambassadorial role". Hirvonen was joined in the new-look M-Sport line-up by another fellow Finnish driver, Jari-Matti Latvala, who stepped into the vacant berth from his former spot at the satellite Stobart Ford team. Khalid Al Qassimi returned with a programme of ten events on the 2008 WRC calendar aboard a third car. His co-driver, Nicky Beech, was replaced by Michael Orr, former co-driver to Matthew Wilson. The season got off to a promising start for both Finnish drivers, with Hirvonen taking second to the seemingly omnipresent Loeb on the Monte Carlo Rally in January, before Latvala shattered Henri Toivonen's long-standing record as youngest World Rally Championship-qualifying event winner by outpacing Hirvonen to victory on the following Rally Sweden. Hirvonen collected his first win of the year on the Jordan Rally and led Latvala in an astutely tactically judged Ford 1–2 on Rally Turkey to assert a slender points lead over Citroën's Loeb heading into both Finns' home round of the Championship in August. Unfortunately for Ford, however, neither Hirvonen nor Latvala were able to defeat Loeb, with the now dominant Frenchman proceeding to record his eighth and ninth victories of the season on the New Zealand, Spanish and Corsican rallies. For the latter two, asphalt rounds, team boss Malcolm Wilson drafted in, in place of Latvala, pacy Belgian and one-time full-time pilot for the Ford team, François Duval, in order to maximise the team's points haul on a surface traditionally favourable to their French rivals. Although Hirvonen did return to winning form to head a Ford 1–2 with Latvala in Japan, it was at the same event where Loeb finished third to finally clinch the drivers' title, although the team did close in to within eleven points of Citroën in the manufacturers' title race, with a possible total of eighteen still available, as the season-ending Wales Rally GB loomed in December. 2009 season Hirvonen, Latvala and Al-Qassimi were retained in the team. Rival team Citroën got their season off to a good start, Sébastien Loeb winning all of the first five rallies. After finishing third in Ireland, Hirvonen scored four consecutive second-place finishes, but retired in Argentina with an engine problem. The team won their first rally of the season in Italy, Latvala beating Hirvonen. Hirvonen then took four consecutive victories, giving him a five-point lead over