Sebastien Loeb secured his second win of the season after clinching Rally Mexico, but Australian Chris Atkinson fired a warning shot to the champion with his best performance yet.
Atkinson was a close-up second to the Loeb in Sunday's final stage while Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala finished third.
Atkinson had kept pace with Loeb until launch control and clutch problems slowed him up on day two, and he produced a sensible race on Sunday to secure a career-best finish.
"It's awesome for all the guys in the team who are working hard on the new car," Atkinson said.
"It's my best ever result and that's really cool. The car was faultless thanks to everyone."
"Let's see if we can keep improving this car and the results."
Atkinson now sits in fourth place in the season's standings with 14 points.
Loeb, who won the opening race of the season in Monte Carlo, had a relatively straightforward task on Sunday's four final stages with a lead of more than a minute after day two.
Having trailed Latvala by 9.6secs after the first day, Loeb was fortunate to regain the lead after the Finn suffered turbo problems on stage 13 which cost him dearly.
"This rally has not been so easy and I had a big battle with Jari-Matti, but we got the result we came for finally, so I'm happy about that," Loeb said.
"Latvala and the Ford have been very strong though. I remember last year we were a bit faster here than the Ford, but now we are very similar, so I hope we will not be behind on the future gravel rallies."