Latvala wins in Finland for second year in a row

In 42 events hurtling around often brutally-uneven roads, at both development and full WRC level, the 28-year-old from Geraldine had always kept his cars on their wheels in competition. Paddon and co-driver John Kennard had made an excellent start to the 30 July-2 August rally with consistently top five stage times on the four stages completed on Friday morning. The Belgian driver had an unfortunate warm up session after crashing his Hyundai i20 WRC moments before the rally kicked off. Luckily his team was able to rebuild the auto within hours enabling him to secure the fourth place finish.

“From there we have been simply passengers”. “It sent us sailing into the trees and over a couple of times”.

Jari-Matti Latvala took control of the Rally of Finland with a dominant display on Saturday to put some breathing space between himself and Volkswagen team-mate Sebastien Ogier. He had moved up from 11th after the opening tremendous…

“We’ve already putting this behind us and have begun working on our next two events in Germany and Australia. Without it maybe we could’ve been fighting at the front, but I’m happy”.

Finland was Paddon’s second serious crash of the season, the first coming in Argentina when he flew wide over a jump and crashed into the crowd. The Finn won the last three stages of the day to build his lead ahead of a final day comprising just two runs at Myhinpaa.

Norway’s Mads Ostberg (Citreon) lies in third spot, one minute 28 seconds behind Latvala, after taking advantage of team-mate Kris Meeke’s misfortune. Ford driver Ott Tänak claimed fifth overall in his Fiesta RS leading another Fiesta RS of Juho Hänninen.