MOTORSPORT: Toyota a winner again in WRC

Toyota has won in just its second event back in the World Rally Championship after its 17-year absence.

Driving a Yaris built in Finland by four-time world champion Tommi Makinen in the snow and ice of Rally Sweden, Finn Jari-Matti Latvala gave the Japanese manufacturer its first victory in world rallying since Frenchman Didier Auriol won the 1999 Rally China in a Corolla.

Joining Latvala and his co-driver Miika Anttila on the podium were the M-Sport Ford Fiesta combinations of Estonians Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja and French four-time world champions Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia.

As in last month’s Monte Carlo Rally, the first for this year’s more aggressive machinery, Hyundai’s Belgian driver Thierry Neuville crashed out while leading by more than 43 seconds.

This time Neuville’s i20 hit a concrete block on Saturday's super-special stage in Karlstad.

That left Latvala in a thrilling contest with the M-Sport pair. The Finn’s lead on Saturday night had been just 3.8 seconds but he quickly stretched that on Sunday as Tanak dropped several seconds with a loose rear end and Ogier spun at the first corner of the first stage on the last day. Ogier called it “the most stupid mistake of my career”.

Latvala then won the final Power Stage, now worth five points rather than three, to take victory by almost half a minute and the maximum 30 points for the round.

Latvala, so often the bridesmaid to Ogier in their years together in the now-defunct Volkswagen team as the Frenchman won his world titles, now leads the drivers’ championship by four points over ‘Monte’ victor Ogier.

It’s the first time any driver other than Ogier has led the WRC since February 2014.

His latest victory was his fourth in Sweden and the 17th of his career, while Toyota has always insisted that its comeback year in the WRC was more about development than results.

“It’s amazing. A new team, a new car, our second rally and we’re winning [after second place in Monte Carlo],” Latvala said.

“I have no words to describe it. I’m so emotional.

“We’re at a good level, but now we go forward and it gets more difficult.

“Mexico is next up [on March 9-12] and I’m really motivated for the championship.

"This victory [felt] the same as when I won my first rally in 2008. That victory came as a surprise, just like this one came as a surprise.
"[Usually] I think too much. When I stop thinking, I do a good performance!

"In the second half of last year I was not performing well. I lost confidence and when I got the chance to get in the Toyota team after Volkswagen pulled out, it was a big motivation boost.

“There's a very nice spirit in the team, and that has been lifting me back to the level I was at some years ago."

Northern Irishman Kris Meeke could have been fourth in Sweden but crashed after one of the many crests in the event unsettled his Citroen C3 and he dropped to 12th in the final order, one place ahead of Neuville.

Spaniard Dani Sordo wound up best of the Hyundai drivers in fourth, while New Zealander Hayden Paddon struggled early, saying his i20 was like “wrestling a 400-pound lion”, and ended seventh.

Irishman Craig Breen was fifth in his first rally in a C3 while Welshman Elfyn Evans was sixth in a Fiesta.

While Latvala had an almost perfect weekend, his Toyota teammate and countryman Juho Hanninen hit a tree on Friday and a bridge on Sunday.

M-Sport leads Toyota Gazoo Racing by 20 points in the manufacturers’ championship courtesy of its double podiums at both events so far.

World Rally Championship driver standings after two of 13 rounds – 1. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Toyota Yaris) 48 points; 2. Sebastien Ogier (France, Ford Fiesta) 44; 3. Ott Tanak (Estonia, Ford Fiesta) 33; 4. Dani Sordo (Spain, Hyundai i20) 25, Craig Breen (Ireland, Citroen C3) 20.

WRC teams championship – 1. M-Sport Ford 73 points; 2. Toyota 53; 3. Hyundai 40; 4. Citroen 26.