Volkswagen Motorsport director Jost Capito believes Jari-Matti Latvala has never performed better than he did at the weekend, when he won Neste Oil Rally Finland.
Driving a Polo R WRC, Latvala took a thrilling victory on his home round of the championship, beating his team-mate, world champion Sebastien Ogier, by just 3.6 seconds after a nail-biting finale.
Capito said: “We experienced the best Jari-Matti Latvala of all time, with an entirely new attitude towards rallying – highly focused, but relaxed at the same time. He was in his own world while he was driving and only his teammate Sébastien Ogier was able to keep up with him to the end.”
“He was fastest from the start and he deserves to win this rally. We see him get stronger and stronger. Last year he was lacking some testing and he was still getting used to the Polo and getting used to it on different rallies. We expected him to get stronger. He is where we believed and where we thought he would be.”
The win was Latvala’s third of the season and keeps him in contention for the drivers’ title. He will head to the next round in Germany second in the standings, trailing leader Ogier by 44 points.