built Paviljonki congress and trade fair centre. Previously, Laajavuori had served as the competition centre for 30 years. The Hippos super special was dropped in favour of a similar stage at the Killeri harness racing track by the lake Killerjärvi, where the audience had better visibility of the competing cars. The 50th running of the Rally Finland in 2000 was won by Peugeot's Marcus Grönholm, who would go on to dominate the event. In 2002, Englishman Richard Burns challenged teammate Grönholm to become the third non-Nordic competitor to win the rally, but broke his car on a jump in Ouninpohja while leading the event. The next foreign winner was Ford's Estonian driver Markko Märtin in the following year. For the first time in the history of the event, no Finnish driver made it onto the podium. Rally Finland was chosen the "Rally of the Year" for the third year in a row in 2004. Despite Lahti entering the race, a unanimous decision was made to keep Jyväskylä as the rally headquarters. In 2005, Grönholm set the still-standing record for the highest average speed in a world rally; . In the 2007 Rally Finland, Grönholm equalled Mikkola's win record and became the first driver to win the same WRC event seven times. At the 2008 rally, Sébastien Loeb added his name to the list of non-Nordic winners. This also marked Citroën's first win since 1962. As the World Rally Championship reintroduced round rotation in 2009, Rally Finland signed a five-year contract with WRC promoter International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC), insuring that the event stays in the calendar annually. The 2010 event saw a major change; the rally was run in two days instead of three and finished on Saturday. Ford's Finns Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala took their debut home wins in 2009 and 2010, respectively. At the 2011 Rally Finland, Loeb made history by becoming the first non-Finn to win the event twice. The event expanded to Lahti in the south and brought classic rally cars to the route, as some of the stages were also part of the Lahti Historic Rally. Characteristics Geographic features Rally Finland is known for its smooth and wide gravel roads, numerous big jumps (or yumps) and blind crests. It is the highest-speed rally in the World Rally Championship, having averaged 125.4 km/h in 2015. Of the nine fastest-ever WRC rallies by average speed, eight are