The full route for this year's Rally Finland has been revealed and it retains only three stages in identical form from last season's event.
Despite speculation that the event would return to a traditional Friday, Saturday, Sunday format, the Thursday-Saturday (August 2-4) itinerary remains, as do the stages in the Lahti region.
Instead of spending a whole day around the more southerly city, however, the competitors will only regroup there before the first three stages on Thursday afternoon.
The qualifying stage for Rally Finland runs through Ruuhimaki on Wednesday, Aug. 1. The event then starts from Jyvaskyla the following day, with three stages around Lahti and a return to Jyvaksyla.
The crews will be out of service the following morning for a three loops of stages. Saturday's finale brings a further three loops of stages and an evening finish.
The big news is the return of the Ouninpohja stage, back in the timetable for the first time since 2007. Mokkipera and Palsankyla are return after a three-year absence, as does the superspecial at the Killeri trotting track on Friday night.
Much of the Surkee and Leustu stages haven't been seen since 2006, while parts of Surkee haven't been included since Juha Kankkunen collected his third and final win on the event in 1999. The organizers have also included some completely new roads on these two Saturday stages. Thursday's Mynnila test is the only completely new one on the route.
A statement from the organizers of the event said: "Looking back one year, we boldly took our event to new horizons and new audiences. We introduced almost a third of unknown territory to our competitors.
"From these adventures we have now taken the best experiences, having listened to the teams, the media and our fans and have refined all this into what we think is close to perfection."