Puncture and engine overheating problems ruined Rally Argentina

Puncture and engine overheating issues at the first day of the rally caused one and a half minute time loss and ruined Jari-Matti’s ability to fight for the victory. Jari-Matti and Miikka reached 5th place overall.

Thierry Neuville won the rally by the margin 0,7 second to Elfyn Evans, who lead the rally from the very beginning.

Latvala was in the second place at the day service of the first leg. But at the afternoon’s first special stage heat of the engine started to rise and engine management system switched engine to safe mode. That caused power loss and of course speed was limited. The problem was solved with instruction from service by the phone.

At the next to last special stage Latvala lost half minute because of puncture and was dropped to sixth place. Before that he was at the third place.

“We run little bit wide and rear wheel was damaged. There were still 15 kilometres to go and we desided to go on without tyre change. At the afternoon we were cautious, and we raised up a car, and I wasn’t as confident with car as I was in the morning.”

At the second leg of six stages Latvala spurted to the fifth place, when Mads Ötberg was dropped down because of technical concerns. Latvala wasn’t at the top speed during the leg, but there weren’t too menu problems either.

“Morning loop went well. I was a little bit too cautious at the end of long stage (Los Gigantes) because I went of there last year. There were some problems with turning. We changed little bit setup at the service and after that I was more confident with the car.” Latvala said.

At the last day of the rally Latvala hold his position and earned one point from Power Stage. At the changing and rough gravel roads Toyota Yaris WRC wasn’t at it’s best.

“The car is not humble enough to turn in the slow corners. It showed up especially at the Power Stage (El Condor) that includes lots of slow corners.” Latvala summed up.