Mud, problems and spruce twigs in Wales

Rally Wales was driven on again on slippery but this time on slightly revised roads. For Jari-Matti Latvala the second ”home rally” on this season brought the win of the Powerstage.

– Now when we have taken the win of the Powerstage in two competitions in a row, we should next win two rallies in a row, Latvala said.

On the opening day of the rally, stages of Gartheiniog (14,58 km), Dyfi (21,90 km), Hafren Sweet Lamb (23,55 km) and Maesnant (12,86 km) were driven twice. In the morning the road were covered by slippery mud. At the afternoon the sun dried the mud as sticky cover on the gravel.

Latvala couldn’t find the right kind of driving rhythm for the stages for the first driving time, and neither were the set up right. However, before the night break he managed to narrow the gap between Sebastien Ogier to only 6,6 seconds.

– At the afternoon I focused on staying right lines, which gave good results.

– In the morning I tried too hard. You just can’t drive that fast in the conditions like these, Latvala summed up.

Latvala and Ogier split the stage wins as half, 4-4.

The opening stage of the second driving day, Clocaenog East, broked Latvala’s dream of success.

– Coming to bend right at the end of long straight section was more slippery than I expected. I didn’t have it on my pace notes. I braked too hard and stopped the engine. I couldn’t start the engine immediately and the back of the car went to ditch. It took over three minutes to get the car back to the road, Latvala described the situation.

The rear spoiler of Latvala’s WRC Polo broked when the spectator were pushing the car back to the road.

After that the front damper broked too, and when the chance to win the rally was lot, Latvala couldn’t fnd the fighting spirit for the rest of the stages, not earlier than the last stage where he took the win.

At the final day of the rally Latvala set four fastest times and smiled after finishing the Powerstage. There was a big spruce twig hanging from the front spoiler.

– It was on the middle of the road, I just couldn’t avoid the hit. Not any crash caused it, although it was near to happen, Latvala recalled the situation.

Today’s focus was to get the good rhythm to drive on gravel and it was found.

Sebastien Ogier who had confirmed the championship earlier was the winner of the rally. Mikko Hirvonen who finished his rally career in Wales, was second.

Latvala’s superspurt didn’t bring the victory

This year the Rally Catalonia turned out to be the stage where the ranking of Word Rally Championship was sealed. Jari-Matti Latvala should have won his Volkswagen team mate, Sebastien Ogier, to move the ensurement of WRC victory to Wales Rally GB but this time the result was the second place after good try and powerful spurt.

– I drove two days well on tarmac well I lost the win on the graveled roads on Friday.

I just couldn’t find the right kind of power to drive. Driving wasn’t as easy as I thought and I didn’t find good rhythm fo the brakings, Latvala said.

The Rally Catalonia consisted of one day on graveled roads and two days on tarmac. Special stages were driven around city of Tarragona, from Salou. The route, in total 372 kilometers long, was driven in hot autumn weather.

It was assumed that the warm night would reduce the sand-dust in the air but it turned out be false assumption. The sand-dust was nuisance for everybody else than Sebastien Ogier who was the first driver on the route. On the other hand, the loosen sand on the surface of the road slowed Ogier’s pace.

On the opening day, Latvala had difficulties specially during the first driving time on 35,68 kilometers long super stage Terra Alta, that consisted both gravel and tarmac. He lost there 19,2 seconds to Ogier.

– I was far too cautious when I expected the tyre to heat so much in these conditions, Latvala said disappointedly.

Despite Latvala couldn’t find the right kind of mood for driving for Friday, the next­­ two days Latvala pushed really hard on the stages. He managed to reach eight fastest times during 232,42 stage kilometers and narrowd the gap between Ogier from over 36 seconds to only 11,3 seconds.

– When it comes to the next season, the good speed in German and in France and, of course, on the tarmac roads of Catalonia will strenghten my self-confidence. I think we are now at the same level with Ogier, Latvala analyzed his speed.

Latvala, who already have confirmed the second position in WRC, ended his rally with the win on the Powerstage. Ogier took seventh win during this season and 23th WRC-win in his whole career, and therefore confirmed the championship for the second time.

Mikko Hirvonen with M-Sport’s Ford took third place. This was the second time on podium for Mikko on this season.

Latvala overcame the challenge of tarmac rallies

There it is. Jari-Matti Latvala shaking hands with Miikka Anttila after Rally France was much more than an usual cheer. They were celebrating their first win ever on tarmac and banishing the bad memory of the setback of Rally Deutschland driven in August. At the same time it was a win, that has been carried out a a lot of work for years.

– First we had to realize that there are a variety of tarmac surfaces: rough, slippery, bumpy and all the rest. Then we have studied driving lines, to set the right setup for the car and most recently, we’ve been studying how to drive when the tarmac surface is slippery and roads dirty, Latvala says.

– I have also watched videos of Sebastien Loeb driving. This season Rally France was driven on a renewed route: almost half of the route was new. In previous years the route toured vineyards just like in Rally Deutschland but this year the rally was driven on roads in forests, where were some muddy and wet places. The organizers of the rally put the plastic poles to prevent drivers from cutting the benches. On the first two days of the rally there were a lot of poles on the benches.

Also the new feature for this rally was the Michelin’s new dry weather tyre.

– It turned out be good specially on slightly wet and muddy stages but at the same time it wasn’t so accurate to drive on the dry roads which forced us to change the setup of the car, Latvala said.

Latvala who had nine fastest times out of 18 stages, ruled the rally nearly right from the beginning. Latvala and Volkswagen’s Andreas Mikkelsen fought for the win but Latvala left Mikkelsen second. In the beginning of the rally Sebastien Ogier was left over eight seconds from the lead because of a censor failure in the gearbox.

– I tried my best on the first four stages on the second day and when the gap between me and Mikkelsen was big enough, I could be ablet to drive and keep him an eye at the same time, Latvala said.

The last four sections of the rally Latvala started with a safety, half minute lead. In Rally Deutschland he lost the chance to win at the same situation but now Latvala drove steadily – although tv-commentator, Marcus Grönholm, commented that Latvala could drive more slowly at that point.

– I was excited but I found fast the right driving rhythm, Latvala told about his speed on the end stage.

Latvala is the first Finnish rally driver to win on tarmac since Tommi Mäkinen’s performance in 1999 in San Remo Rally. Grönholm took win in Monte Carlo Rally in 2006 but at that time the drivers drove in snowy conditions in French alps.

Latvala took 12. win on his career and is now 27 points behind from Sebastien Ogier, when there’s only two rallies left.

Problem with brakes and wrong tyre choice ruined Latvala’s chance to win

Despite the second place and seven fastest stage times including the win of Powerstage, Jari-Matti Latvala wasn’t so happy after Rally Australia. He lost the victory with only 6,8 seconds to his team mate Sebastien Ogier. Without brake problems on the first special stage and the wrong tyre choice caused by wrong weather forecast Latvala would have fought for the victory.

24 special stages of rally were driven in fast, hard-based but partly technical and rocky gravel roads.

Rally Australia were driven in Coffs Harbour area, ca.500 km to north from Sydney. Special stages were mostly known from earlier years.

– On the first special stage in the first brake I noticed that the brakes were soft. The movement of the brake pedal was long. Luckily we managed to fix it. However, we could be able to chase the victory without that problem, Latvala said.

Cause to the brake problem Latvala lost over seven seconds to the lead on the first special stage. On the second day, he managed to reach the leading position. Day started with nearly 49 kilometers long, fast marathon special stage of Nambucca.

Latvala dropped to second position when Nambucca was driven for second time in the afternoon.

Latvala chose the soft rear tyres and hard front tyres but it turned out that four hard tyres would have been the right choose. Ogier took three hard tyres and one soft tyre and fought his way to the lead. Latvala didn’t get much consolation in knowing that part of the leading drivers made even worse tyre choices due to chance of rain.

– It seemed that it’s going to rain on the stage. There were couple of showers on the area, Latvala told.

–  On the special stage I noticed right after the start that soft rear tyres wouldn’t work in these conditions.

Ogier is no longer faster

With his fast speed Latvala managed to keep the gap between Ogier as 11,8 seconds before the last leg consisted of six special stages. During that leg the gap was only 6,8 seconds.

– The positive thing here was that I could win and challenge Ogier. He used to be an expert with the rallies driven on gravel like Mexico and Argentina rallies but he is no longer faster than me, Latvala said.

Trio Ogier, Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen drove triple victory and hence they secured the second manufacturers’ championship in a row to VW. In the WRC battle Ogier continues in the lead of 50 points before Latvala.

Citroen’s Kris Meeke was fourth and M-Sport’s Mikko Hirvonen was fifth with his Ford.

First victory at an asphalt rally slipped through the fingers

The first victory at an asphalt rally was incredibly close to Jari-Matti Latvala in German. The rally was driven in very familiar views, near to Trier, around the Mosel Valley vineyard edges, on the roads of the German Army training area.

The competition was completely Latvala’s show after Volkswagen-team mate Sebastien Ogier slipped out of the road on the first day of the rally. After that, the French suspended his rallt when he slipped out of the road again, on the second day.

Latvala could drive eight fastest times on the route of 18 special stages before misfortune stroke on the first stage of the last competition day. A left turn junction was more slippery from the outer edge than Latvala expected. The car spun sideways and crashed into the vineyard.

– There should have been ”hold” in the pace notes, which means that we should have stayed on the inner edge as there was moisture next to the outer edge made of concrete. Then the rear of the car slided over the lawn, Latvala said.

Latvala stepped on the throttle and tried to drive back to the road but there wasn’t luck enough.

– I tried to keep the speed and then we ended up to the vineyard. There was a crash barrier that prevented us to return to the stage. If we had crashed a few meters to the side, we could have continued the rally.

Right speed on the asphalt

Falling by the wayside from the leading position was a huge disappointment for Latvala, because he had a great chance to bridge the gap between Ogier who is leading the whole WRC competition.

– It really niggles me but we have to go on. The positive thing here was that we got right speed, Latvala summed up. Leading the German rally turned out be dramatic also to Kris Meeke who stopped his rally.

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville took the victory at rally and Dani Sordo, who won the rally last year, was second, bringing to double victory to the Hyundai-team.

Andreas Mikkelsen took third position with his VW. Mikko Hirvonen was in fifth place as the British driver of M-Sport, Elfyn Evans, was fourth.

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Latvala beat Ogier and captivated the spectator in Jyväskylä

Jari-Matti Latvala’s thrilling victory in Neste Oil Rally Finland didn’t leave anyone cold. Impressive tour de force and famous Finnish sisu were praised not only by other drivers and the spectator but also by the media. The Finnish star of Volkswagen himself gave thanks to the spectator, co-driver Miikka Anttila and sport psychologist, Cristoph Treier’s support.

– I have never had feeling like this before. I got this same feeling already on the shakedown and through the whole rally, Latvala smiled.

This season Neste Rally returned to the well-known graveled roads and Grand Prix-views of Central Finland. On the route some new challenges were set by Pihlajakoski and Päijälä stages that were new to all drivers and were driven twice on Friday. Also Kakaristo, that was modified version of Ouninpohja, set an interesting challenge.

Stages driven on Saturday were familiar to the drivers, legendary and superfast Myhinpää was the highlight of short Sunday

Latvala won 13 out of rally’s 26 stages, where as 3,6 seconds slower Sebastien Ogier won 12, being second fast in the rally.

Latvala was hard pressed on Saturday, when he lost near half minute lead due to breakage of a brake caliper in Jukojärvi 2.

– At that moment I decided that I won’t lose this rally. I lost in Sardinia although I was in lead. Same happened in Rally Corsica last year. I made a decision that I won’t let it happen for third time, Latvala said.

On the last day of the competition Latvala’s speed was tough but driving went steadily and without any mistakes, despite the great excitement. Latvala made a bottom time on the Ruuhimäki 1. and was one second slower than Ogier in Myhinpää.

Latvala was 3,7 seconds lead when starting the final stage, Ruuhimäki that was driven for second time. Ogier took 0,1 seconds better time there but Latvala and Anttila gained their second victory of the Neste Oil Rally Finland which they aired wildly in the finish.

– In last three years the French drivers have won here. They have shown their skills and speed. I wanted to win this rally for Finnish rally fans. I’m sure that this victory is heartened by them and they will come to Jyväskylä also in next year, Latvala said.

With his win Latvala narrowed Ogier’s margin of lead to 44 points. When there’s five competitions left, Latvala’s chances to take part in the battle for the championship aren’t still gone.

– If I had lost, it would have meant that I’m the second in WRC-championship. Now I managed to keep the battle for the championship alive.

During this season, Latvala has won also Rally Sweden and Rally Argentina. Throughout his whole career there are eleven victories.

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Problem with damper dropped Latvala from the podium

Poor tests ruined Jari-Matti Latvala’s chances to fight for the victory on the superfast roads of the Rally Poland, that came back to WRC-calendar after five years, as slightly renewed.

– There was a problem with the car setup when the rally started. It was caused by pre-test that wasn’t success. There were many junctions on the test-road and that’s why it was too slow. Therefore, the setting was too hard, says Latvala who reached the fifth place in the competition.

– The worst situation during the rally is that you have to change the car setup, just like I did. Second last day of the rally we hit the rock and the mounting of the upper part of the damper broke.

– The breakage of the damper dropped Latvala’s place from the third to seventh, but he was able to reach the fifth place.

– We fixed the damper right after the stage, when there was one stage to go before the service. Then we fixed the structure again before the start of the next stage. This turned out be mistake. The structure broke and there we lost the podium-place.

Visit Lithuania didn’t work

On the final day of the rally the setup of Latvala’s car was right and he drove really hard to catch Mikko Hirvonen who was in fourth place. At he end of the rally the margin to fourth position was only 0,7 seconds.

– I could have driven faster the last stage of the rally, Powerstage, if I had had better touch with the stage. The previous day, when the same stage was driven for first time, I had the problem with the damper so I drove it quite steadily, said Latvala who was third on the Powerstage. VW’s Sebastien Ogier was the winner of the rally and he left behind VW’s Andreas Mikkelsen and Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.

Latvala welcomes Rally Poland and it’s center, Mikolajiki, to WRC-calendar.

– Great competition, but in the future some things will need to change. The competition days were even 16-17 hours long and there were long waiting times between.

– Also the two special stages driven in Lithuania turned out be a mistake of the rally organizers. The soft stages were driven only once before the road got so bad condition that the stages had to cancel before the second drive…

Brakes caused problems in hot and rocky Sardinia

This year the center of Rally Italia moved to the Sardinia’s Catalan center, Alghero. However, legendary twisty and rocky stages remained unchanged. Due to the change of center place there were long road sections which set some challenges for drivers, just like the technical features of the race did.

VW’s Jari-Matti Latvala was frustrated with the brake problems occured at the beginning of the race.

The front brake leaked liguid through the ventilation screw. Tightening the screw, adding liquid and bleeding the brakes were the keys to fix the problem. After that Latvala put on a spurt and raised his ranking from the 10th position to the lead of rally, 22,4 seconds before his team mate, Sebastien Ogier.

Raising the ranking was eased by Juho Hänninen’s crash, Mikko Hirvonen’s stop when his car led up in flames and by Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville who met some technical problems.

On second day of the race Latvala almost reached the half minute lead but the setbacks occured during the twice driven, near 60 km-long special stage dropped his standing in third.

– During the first driving the sensor of the motor caused problems. It informed that the engine was heated up to 132 degrees and told us to stop. We slowed down and looked for a stopping place, when I noticed that the engine started to cool and I continued driving. Engine worked well to the finish of stage, but that episode costed many seconds, Latvala said.

–  On the second driving I made a mistake. The car jumped out of the racing line and a stone hit and cracked the another rear wheel and we needed to change the tyre. The second position could have been possible to reach, if the brakes hadn’t overheated at the end of stage, on the 20 kilometres long downhill section. The cooling system just didn’t cool enough in the 30 degrees heat and on this long stage.

Extra points from the Powerstage

Latvala tried to reach the second position during the last four stages of the Rally. He won two of the stages but Mads Östberg who chosed the tyres better, took the second position. The winner of the rally was Sebastien Ogier. In World Rally Championship he is now 33 points in the lead before Latvala.

Latvala got little comfort when he was second on the Powerstage. This gave two extra WRC-points for him. The special stage winner was Andreas Mikkelsen, and Ogier was third.

Every time I win Ogier – even it was only one point – it’s a good thing, Latvala said.

Speed and tactic keys to victory

Recent years Rally Argentina has become the Safari Rally of today in the field of Rally World Championship. This year there was raining before the race which washed away soft sand leaving stages bumpy and rocky . The fog and mud also caused extra challenge to the drivers. Those didn’t stop Jari-Matti Latvala: he took the victory of the rally – as a first Finn since 2003.

Latvala performed strongly on Friday and left the second driver, Sebastien Ogier, 18 seconds behind during the last stage on Friday. Latvala’s leading marginal for Saturday were 17,7 seconds .

On Saturday Ogier was about to get Latvala’s position when Latvala span and stalled the engine at the stage. However, Ogier also span on the same stage and lost more time cause of puncture.

“For some reason I was a bit nervous before that stage and when the driving didn’t start well, I made a little mistake. I stepped on gas too early and as the tyres weren’t at right position, the right tyre stopped to sand and we span, Latvala thought back the mistake that took 5-6 seconds.”

“When I checked the split times after stalling the engine , I expected us to be 10 seconds behind Ogier but instead of it, we were 2,5 seconds in the lead, Latvala thought back.”

“After that Latvala succeed to grow the gap between him and Ogier with his clever and stable speed.”

“I realized after recce that in these conditions it’s smarter to drive steadily rather than as fast as possible. This means that I was really careful on the poor-conditioned roads. On contrary, on better-conditioned roads, we pushed really hard.”

Co-operation with co-driver Anttila worked like a charm through the whole rally

Latvala who won five out of 14 special stages shared thanks to his co-driver, Miikka Anttila.

“Miikka read the pace notes really fantastic specially during those misty sections. It worked like a charm with the drive, Latvala rejoiced.”

According to Latvala, the second victory for the season and the tenth victory of World Rally Championships came along with almost perfect performance.

“I could have driven better the Power stage at the end of rally. But El Condor turned out to be muddy and slippery condition that I decided to stay in my plan, and I didn’t start to catch three extra points with a big risk, Latvala says.”

Ogier won the Power stage and beat Mikko Hirvonen and Latvala who earned one extra WRC-point from third place. In the fight of World Rally Championship he is second, 24 points from Ogier.

“Beating Ogier in these conditions was a big thing to me, especially when his drive here last year was so strong that I couldn’t believe that I could beat him.”

The World Rally Championship will continue on June with the rallies of Sardinia and Poland. After that next in line will be Neste Oil Rally Finland, at the end of July.

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It was pouring with rain two days before Rally Portugal which changed the roads. The fast and technical roads were on one hand slippery and muddy on the other hand they were drying rapidly. During the first actual racing day the grip was varying a lot which made the tyre choice very critical. We top drivers were thinking throughout the whole rally if it was damp enough for soft tyres or would it dry so that soft tyres would overheat and break. In the recce it was raining cats and dogs, so much it was like in a monsoon rain in Africa. One bridge was flooding so heavily we were not able to do the recce until the next day. The start of the rally was in Lisbon and then we went close to Faro where the roads were very varied. Mikko Hirvonen was brave to take soft tyres and was leading after the six stages of day one. Ott Tänak was 3,7 seconds behind and Sebastien Ogier 6,5 seconds behind him. Unfortunately I had to retyre because I had mixed tyres and the car pushed a bit. In one fast left I went too wide and I had to correct my line and there was a hole. The tyre hit the hole and went up, hit a bank and rolled once. On day two and three the roads dried more, Sebastien Ogier took the victory, Mikko Hirvonen was second and Mads Östberg third. There were many retyrements: Kris Meeke, Robert Kubica and Tänak. My mechanics were able to fix my car so I could continue the race. I drove three fastest times and took points on power stage. I enjoyed driving and on power stage I had a good speed. Now I’m second in the series 29 points behind Ogier. I’m looking forward to Argentina it has always been a good rally for me unlike these first rallies of the season (except for Rally Sweden, of course).