Jari-Matti Latvala

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Jari-Matti Latvala

World Rally Championship record
Nationality	Finnish
Active years	2002 –
Teams	Stobart Ford, Ford
World rallies	59
Championships	0
Wins	1
Podium finishes	4
Stage wins	50
Points	65
First world rally	2002 Rally Great Britain
First win	2008 Swedish Rally

Jari-Matti Latvala (born April 3, 1985) is a Finnish rally driver competing in the World Rally Championship. His co-driver has been Miikka Anttila since the 2003 Rallye Deutschland.

1 Career
2 WRC victories
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Career

Latvala began driving when he was eight years old, after receiving a Ford Escort from his father Jari Latvala, also a rally driver and 1994 national champion in the Group N class.^[1] At the age of ten, Latvala started practicing with an Opel Ascona on a frozen lake.^[2]

[edit] 2000's

Latvala's first world rally was the 2002 Rally Great Britain at the age of 17. He finished in 17th position with a Mitsubish Lancer Evolution VI. In 2003, Latvala competed in four WRC events with a Ford Focus WRC, finishing tenth at the Acropolis Rally, 17th at the Rallye Deutschland, 14th at the Neste Oil Rally Finland and tenth at the Rally Great Britain.^[3]

In 2004, Latvala mostly competed with an S1600 class Junior World Rally Championship car. His best overall result in the World Rally Championship was 21st with a Group N Subaru Impreza WRX STI at the Tour de Corse. In the 2005 season, Latvala competed in nine world rallies; six with the Group N Impreza and three with a World Rally Car. His best overall result was 16th, which he managed three times; at the Swedish Rally with a Toyota Corolla WRC and at the Tour de Corse and the Rally d'Italia Sardegna with the Impreza.^[3]

[edit] 2006-2007: Stobart Ford

Latvala driving his Ford Focus RS WRC 06 at the 2007 Rally GB.

In 2006, Latvala competed in 11 world rallies. He drove the Subaru Impreza WRX STI in six, a Ford Focus WRC in four and a Toyota Corolla WRC at his home event, the Neste Oil Rally Finland. His best results came in the last three rallies. At the Telstra Rally Australia, he won the Production Car World Rally Championship (PCWRC) class, and finished sixth overall. At the Propecia Rally New Zealand, he finished eighth overall and also won the PCWRC. With the Focus WRC, he recorded his career-best result by finishing fourth at the last event of the season, the Rally Great Britain. Points from these rallies then placed Latvala 13th overall in the drivers' championship.^[3]

In 2007, Latvala competed a full 16-event programme for Stobart M-Sport Ford with Matthew Wilson and Henning Solberg as teammates. He started the season with retirements in Monte Carlo and Sweden.^[4]^[5] At the Rally Norway, Latvala was in contention for his first podium place, but had to settle for fifth after a 90 seconds time penalty. He did, however, take his first stage win on SS5.^[6] Latvala later took his first podium at the 2007 Rally Ireland. At the last rally of the season, Rally GB, he lost 10 minutes on the last stage of day one due to a windshield wiper malfunction, but went on to win ten of the remaining 11 stages.

[edit] 2008: Ford's factory team

Latvala at the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally.

In 2008, Latvala joined Ford's factory team as a number two driver, taking the place of Mikko Hirvonen, who replaced the retiring Marcus Grönholm as the team's leading driver.^[7] The opening round of the season wasn't lucky for the young Finn - he suffered a puncture after cutting a corner too deep on the very first stage and lost even more time because of a non-fully operative pneumatic wrench.^[8] Latvala continued to fight and was ninth overall before SS12, but he made another mistake there and heavily damaged the front left suspension in his Focus, forcing himself to retire for good.^[9] At the second rally of the season, 2008 Swedish Rally, he had good pace from the beginning - he won all regular special stages on day one, pulling away from the runner-up spot slowly, but consistently. He later had some trouble^[10] and wasn't the fastest on any of the remaining stages, but managed to keep his position throughout the rally. The 22-year-old Latvala took his first WRC win to become the youngest winner in the history of the World Rally Championship. The previous record was held by Henri Toivonen who was 24 years and 86 days old when he won the 1980 RAC Rally.^[11] For his performance during the Swedish rally Latvala was given the Abu Dhabi Spirit Of The Rally award.^[12]

At the first gravel event of the season, the 2008 Rally México, despite officially claiming no intentions to win the event,^[13] he was the fastest driver on the first two stages and was leading the rally throughout the first day, pulling out from the current World Rally Champion, Sébastien Loeb. Unfortunately for the young Finn, the turbo in his Ford Focus was malfunctioning during the second day, making his car uncompetitive. This, along with having to be the opening driver on the stages 9-16, having to sweep the track of the loose gravel, costed him substantial amount of time and Latvala finished the rally third.^[14]