Marcus Gronholm gave Ford their first victory in the British forests for 27 years today as he became the most successful Finnish world rally driver of all time.
Although Gronholm has only won two World Championships compared to fellow countryman Tommi Makinen's four, his Wales Rally GB success was his 25th in the elite series — one more than his retired compatriot.
In a largely disappointing event for the home contingent, British fans took solace from the fact Gronholm's Ford team are based in Cumbria and spearheaded by Malcolm Wilson — whose 19-year-old son Matthew was the leading domestic finisher in 12th position.
Gronholm overcame some niggling problems on the final day to record his seventh success in this year's World Championship, which he ended one point behind title-holder Sebastien Loeb.
The Frenchman was missing his third event in succession having broken his arm in a mountain bike accident.
Loeb's absence meant Gronholm was a hot favourite to repeat his 2001 win and he never looked in danger after leading from the opening stage.
The 38-year-old went into today's concluding four tests with a lead of one minute 18.8 seconds and extended it to a victory margin of 1:35.5 over Austria's Manfred Stohl.
Norway's Petter Solberg, who had been seeking a record fifth consecutive win in this event, finished third, a further 19.7secs adrift.
Solberg had been expected to be Gronholm's main rival, but the Subaru driver was never really in contention for the win as Ford ended their wait for victory in this rally that dated back to Hannu Mikkola's triumph in 1979.
"I have been under pressure today to win this rally for Malcolm (Wilson)," said Gronholm. "The car has been fantastic and I have had a good event with some good luck. It is a shame I couldn't have had a battle with Petter, but he had his own fight I think with Manfred Stohl."
Gronholm encountered some minor difficulties on today's two stages, which were run twice each, with the heavy overnight rain and strong winds having made conditions treacherous.
"On the second stage today I entered a downhill hairpin a little too quickly and spun the car," he explained. "I had to reverse back onto the road and lost a few seconds but it was not such a big drama.
"I also had a problem with the windscreen, which would not demist and made it difficult to drive quickly, and the gearbox didn't feel right. I had difficulty selecting reverse.
"There was a lot of rain in places on both stages so I took no risks."
Matthew Wilson slipped back one position into 12th from his overnight placing.
He struggled from the outset of today's action and said: "The first stage was a right wake-up call. It was dark and hard to judge the road surface. Then we spun on a hairpin on the second stage which lost us a lot of time."