Jari-Matti Latvala

Jari -Matti Latvala ( born April 3, 1985 in Töysä ) is a Finnish rally driver. Latvala drives in the World Rally Championship ( WRC) for Volkswagen Motorsport. His co-driver Miikka Anttila is his compatriot. Jari -Matti Latvala is the son of the ex - rally driver Jari Latvala.

  • 2.1 WRC victories
  • 2.2 WRC results
  • 2.3 JWRC results
  • 2.4 PWRC results

Career

Already with 16 years Latvala drove his first rally. In 2002, he competed in the Rally of Great Britain for his first race in the World Rally Championship. In 2003, he won the Rally Championship of Estonia. He then moved to the JWRC and later in the PWRC class of the World Rally Championship. From 2006 he drove for Stobart Ford and reached at the Rally Ireland 2007 with third place on the podium for the first time in the World Rally Championship. Since 2008, he continues as successor of Marcus Grönholm at the Ford factory team, as team-mate Mikko Hirvonen.

With his overall victory in the Rally of Sweden, he was born on 10 February 2008 on the recent rally world championship race - winner in history. After Latvala had missed the 2009 season with the fourth overall on the podium, he finished the WRC season in 2010 as the second overall behind world champion Sébastien Loeb.

In the World Rally Championship in 2011, he started continue for the Ford works team. With the new Ford Fiesta RS WRC, he reached the second place in the Rally Australia. As the fastest driver of this iteration, it followed a marked Ford team orders and lost intentionally 28 seconds and the first place to his teammate. Even in the subsequent rally France he left, due to team orders, his teammates better placement. He was aware of a two-minute time penalty charge to Hirvonen to be over and to allow him a fourth place. A few hours after the rally France Petter Solberg was excluded from the event and it was the third rank withdrawn. Reason was that his vehicle was too easy in the subsequent weigh- four kilograms. Therefore, all drivers moved from fourth place to a position forward. Thus Latvala was fourth, while Hirvonen was awarded a place on the podium. At the Rally of Catalonia Latvala went back with the victory. He had the task of " risk all to go " and put pressure on Loeb. He lost the lead due to a puncture, after which he held over two days, the undisputed second position. The third Ford team orders in consequence forced to take a two-minute time penalty to be him again. So he gave up his second place and Hirvonen was third.

In the UK, Latvala won the first rally since Finland in 2010. He finished the 2011 season with 50 points behind, to Sébastien Loeb, in fourth place of the Drivers' World Championship.

As No.1 for the Ford World Rally Team

After the departure of his longtime teammate Mikko Hirvonen to Citroen Total World Rally Team Latvala was the new hope for the world championship title in 2012 at Ford In the Monte Carlo Rally he retired on the first day and therefore received no championship points. The reason was a self-inflicted accident on a patch of ice. Latvala won the Swedish Rally and the Rally of Great Britain and ended the year at the third World Cup ranking.

2013 - 2014: At Volkswagen Motorsport

On October 17, 2012 Latvala announced that he drives in 2013 for Volkswagen Motorsport. The following day, Ford made known that the company withdraws from the 2013 WRC. It is not known whether Latvala's decision was made with or without the knowledge of the new Privateer status of the Ford team. In 2013, Latvala won the rally was Greece and World Cup bronze medalist. The year 2014 started well with a fifth place finish at the Rallye Monte Carlo and a win in Sweden.

Statistics

WRC victories

WRC results

JWRC results

PWRC results

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