Jari-Matti Latvala soars after Rally Sweden triumph

RSL Staff

– February 15, 2012Posted in: Featured, News, WRC

Jari-Matti Latvala jumped to an all-time high in the Castrol EDGE Rankings after clinching victory in Rally Sweden.

The Finn had taken charge of the rally from Friday afternoon onwards, although he was never quite able to shake the challenge of Citroen’s Mikko Hirvonen, winner of the event in the past two years.

Latvala eventually built his lead to around 35 seconds entering the final day, as he coped better with difficult conditions and high tyre wear caused primarily by a lower-than-expected level of snow.

That lead dwindled on the final day when Latvala hit a rock and suffered a puncture on the antepenultimate stage, but the quickest time on the next stage rebuilt his advantage and allowed him to claim his first overall win of the season, 16s ahead of Hirvonen.

Victory provided a significant boost in the Rankings, with Latvala moving up to 13th overall – the highest position he has ever occupied.

The rise puts him directly behind Sebastien Ogier – competing this year in a Volkswagen-run S2000 Skoda – and just four spots behind eight-time WRC champion Sebastien Loeb.

The Frenchman suffered a multitude of incidents during the rally and could only finish sixth.

Having won Rally Mexico last year, the round dropped under the rollover system, that proved costly for Loeb and he slipped two spots to ninth, matching his lowest ever position in the Rankings.

He does, however, still possess a healthy lead thus far in the 2012 WRC standings.

Latvala’s rise also carried him above Hirvonen in the Rankings, even though the latter also gained one spot after finishing second.

Hirvonen now lies 15th, although he is less than 50 points down on Latvala.

Further down the order there were triple-figure gains for Evgeny Novikov and Patrick Sandell.

M-Sport Ford’s Novikov repeated his impressive Monte Carlo form by finishing fifth, narrowly ahead of the recovering Loeb.

He jumped 108 places to 211th as a result, comfortably his best ever ranking.

Sandell, the top Mini driver following Dani Sordo’s retirement, meanwhile rose to 362nd – a gain of 125 spots – after finishing eighth.

Source: www.castroledgerankings.com