Latvala tied in second after quickfire opening day in Finland

Ford World Rally Team duo Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila are tied for second place after a fast and furious opening to Rally Finland tonight. Driving a Ford Fiesta RS World Rally Car, the Finns are 7.3sec from the lead, with team-mates Petter Solberg and Chris Patterson less than two seconds behind in sixth.

This eighth round of the FIA World Rally Championship headed south towards Helsinki from its traditional Jyväskylä base this afternoon. After a regroup alongside the picturesque harbour in Lahti, competitors tackled just three gravel speed tests before returning to Jyväskylä late tonight for what will be a short night’s rest.

Two traditional forest special stages sandwiched a short test at Lahti’s trotting track, offering just 29.90km of competition ahead of two longer days on more familiar Rally Finland territory. After yesterday’s thunderstorms, today remained dry and the Ford drivers’ decision to start down the running order to avoid the worst of the slippery loose gravel proved correct.

It took 27-year-old Latvala a while to find his rhythm in the opening speed test. Third place around the trotting track calmed his nerves, but Latvala admitted he was surprised to drop five seconds in the final stage.

“I was a little too careful in the opening stage, but the second test was fine,” said Latvala. “I thought I drove well in the last stage, but the clock showed that I dropped five seconds. That was frustrating because I don’t understand where the time went.

“I tried a new suspension set-up so perhaps I need to think if that was the reason. I pushed hard, so I also need to consider whether I drove too sideways as a result and lost time. The gap is small but tomorrow is much longer and more demanding and I don’t want to concede more seconds in the morning,” he added.

Solberg was quickly into his stride, setting second fastest time in the opening stage before winning the trotting track test. The 37-year-old Norwegian also dropped some seconds in the final test, but such was the pace in this fastest round of the championship that just 9.2sec cover the top six drivers.

“The opening stage went well and the second test was even better, because I was fastest,” said Solberg. “I decided to make a small change to the car’s set-up before the final stage, making it slightly lower to try to improve the performance even further. Unfortunately it didn’t work and I lost a few seconds.

“Because today’s leg was so short, it was the right time to try something like that. If it didn’t work the time loss was always going to be small. Tomorrow I’ll go back to my previous settings and I’ll continue to push hard,” he added.

Ford World Rally Team director Malcolm Wilson said: “I’m pleased we have completed these three stages without problems. They are of a different character to the rest of the rally and it was important not to get caught out. We didn’t and I’m looking forward to a full day’s driving tomorrow.