With the limited running of Sebastien Loeb for Citroën this year the big story in WRC has been the immediate success of the other Sebastien in the new Volkswagen Polo R WRC. In the four rallies to date this season Ogier has finished no worse than second, to Loeb in Monte Carlo, before stringing together a run of three rally wins in a row (Sweden, Mexico and Portugal).
It’s already been a stunning debut year for Volkswagen, with Citroën seemingly floundering without their all-time legend at the wheel. But what of Ogier’s teammate, Jari-Matti Latvala?
To be frank, he has struggled, especially in the first three events. Finally, in Portugal Latvala began to show his promise by finishing third and achieving his best result for the year.
Moving on to Rally Argentina, which is currently underway, Volkswagen will no doubt be pleased to see Latvala set the fastest time in qualifying, making sure the ground he gained in Portugal has not been lost.
Even better for Latvala, Argentina is one of the few races in which Sebastien Loeb will be donning his Citroën race suit, so not only has Latvala out qualified his teammate, who was third, but he’s beaten the world’s best ever rally driver in quali as well.
Latvala revealed the secret to his qualifying success lay in his previous experiences with Ford. “In Portugal the confidence started to come. I started to feel and understand how much I could push into the corner and how well it will stay on the ground,†he said Latvala.
“I was a little bit suffering with the braking in Portugal and I knew that coming here I had updates on the differentials to make them a bit more similar under braking to my previous car (Ford Fiesta RS).
“It gives me more confidence so that I can go deeper into the corners under braking and the wheels don’t lock so easily. This was the change we did here and in qualifying it felt good.â€
A promising start in South America for the 28-year-old Finn. Although, with SS1 already done and dusted Ogier leads the way, from Dani Sordo, Loeb and Latvala. With less than four seconds covering the top four let’s hope we’re in for an exciting rally all the way to the end.
[Source: wrc.com]