Latvala: I’m feeling a little bit of pressure now

Five stages done and Jari-Matti Latvala leads in Germany. But only just.

The Volkswagen ace returned to midday service with a 2.4sec advantage over Thierry Neuville, who was fastest on all three stages in the morning loop.

How’s he feeling? Here’s what Latvala had to say before he checked his Polo R in for a 30-minute freshen-up.

Q. Jari-Matti, how has it gone so far?

J-ML: “Okay, but it was not such an easy start and I’m feeling a little bit of pressure now. The first stage today was dry for the first kilometre but then, when we went into the forests, the road got damper and was quite slippery.

“My driving has been alright, although I could be more consistent. When it’s clean and the grip is good I’m doing okay, but in some corners where it’s very dirty and slippery I didn’t have the best confidence. The car is also understeering, and if I could get rid of that it would boost my confidence.”

Q: You used a combination of hard and soft tyres on Stage 5, how did that go?

J-ML: “Let’s say up to 15 kilometres the combination of soft and hard was working well, but after that the softs started to overheat because it was too dry. Once that happened, so for about four kilometres, we started to get understeer and we had to back off. With this type of combination there is always a limit.”

Q: The rain has stopped now, what tyres do you think we be better this afternoon?

J-ML: “If it stays like this then I think it’s the hard tyre. We are expecting that the weather should get a bit more stabilized. It’s still a bit cloudy but I believe hard tyres will be best”