Loriaux: we knew we could do it

Ford technical director Christian Loriaux has said he had known all year that a dominant performance of the type seen on last week’s Wales Rally GB was possible from the Fiesta RS WRC.

The British-based team ran one-two for much of the FIA World Rally Championship round, with Jari-Matti Latvala going on to claim victory, while Petter Solberg ceded second place to Citroen’s WRC title leader Sebastien Loeb in the closing stages.

Fords filled six of the top 10 points-paying positions, with Vodafone Rally de Portugal winner Mads Ostberg right in the thick of the battle for a podium spot in his privateer entry.

Loriaux said: “Our car could have won every rally this year. There’s only one rally we were beaten fair and square and that was Finland and we were behind by 0.08 seconds per kilometre - that’s less than a tenth of a second. We knew we could do this when everything came together.”

Latvala also talked of the immense relief at taking his first win since Sweden in February. “I didn’t have this confidence in Finland,” he said. “But the confidence here was very big for me in the car. Okay, good times in Finland and Germany boosted my self-confidence, but this was a very good result and one which means a lot to me and the team - this is my second home rally.”