Latvala started to push too late

Ford ace Jari-Matti Latvala has revealed how his push for victory on Neste Oil Rally Finland yesterday came just too late.

The Finn, who won the world championship qualifier for the first time last year, started the final morning 2.6s behind leader Sebastien Loeb’s Citroen. But the combination of a damp road surface - which helped Loeb and hindered Latvala - plus a lack of satisfaction with the handling of his factory Ford Fiesta RS WRC, meant the gap to Loeb increased to 20 seconds until a set-up change at penultimate service transformed his fortunes.
“The humidity was so high [on Friday] night that all the roads were damp,” explained Latvala. “The moisture bound together the loose gravel and the cars ahead didn’t have to sweep the dirt off the surface as we expected. Our road position wasn’t the advantage we thought it would be. First in the order turned out to be the best because that’s the position that offered the most traction.”
He continued: “I had tried different things with the damper, but finally I saw there was too much pre-load in the rear differential. I changed that and got rid of the understeer and got the confidence. I was closing on the lead all the time but I ran out of kilometres. Just two more stages would have been enough. I drove badly this morning when the car didn’t perform as I would have liked and I didn’t know what to do. I finally realised that I needed to make a change in the differential, and when I made that everything came together. Unfortunately it was too late.”
Latvala eventually settled for second place after demoting Sebastien Ogier to third on the second Surkee stage. His gap to Loeb at the finish was 8.1s.