It may only be January, but Valtteri Bottas has already got a win under his belt in 2019 – well, a stage win at least, as Mercedes’ Finnish racer wound up an impressive fifth overall over the weekend on his rallying debut at the Arctic Lapland Rally.

Driving a Ford Fiesta WRC prepared by the crack M-Sport squad and co-driven by Timo Rautiainen – the man who guided Marcus Gronholm to his two World Rally Championship titles – Bottas showed strong pace over three days of running on the snowy stages in northern Finland, even managing to win the short Mantyvaara 3 stage.

Bottas’ speed in his 380bhp Fiesta was enough to put him fifth in the standings, less than two minutes shy of leader Emil Lindholm – an impressive showing on his first-ever official off-road outing.