The young Swede’s toughest challenger has turned out to be Toyota’s team principal, Jari-Matti Latvala, who is competing in this class for the first time in his career. Latvala has got Toyota’s Rally2 car flying, as the gap to Solberg is only 18 seconds.
“Jari-Matti is pushing hard and driving very well. Ouninpohja was the most nerve-wracking stage for me beforehand; it’s a very difficult stage. It was hard to fully trust the notes because I don’t know the stage that well,” Solberg told RallyJournal.com
“I had one moment at the very beginning of the stage, which made me realize that this stage must be respected. On the second run, I’ll at least know the stage better and usually can push a bit harder then. It feels like things are under control, and the rhythm is quite good.”
Latvala mentioned that it’s difficult to make up the time by driving alone, even though he beat Solberg by more than four seconds on Ouninpohja. According to Latvala, the situation might have been decided on Friday during the second run of Laukaa when the Finnish veteran, caught by heavy rain, lost exactly 18 seconds to Solberg.
“Oliver is driving very well. If we hadn’t lost Laukaa yesterday, the situation might be different. Now it’s difficult to catch up just by driving. We gained four seconds on Ouninpohja, but it will be even harder to make a difference on the second run,” Latvala admitted.
The most experienced driver in the history of the WRC even got so excited that the numerous jumps on the legendary Ouninpohja stage caused his back to stiffen.
“I’ve tried to jump moderately, but then there was the jump at Ouninpohja’s Yellow House, which landed on the nose first, and then before Mutanen’s junction, it came down a bit harshly. My back got a bit stiff in the middle,” Latvala explained.
“I didn’t expect to land as freshly as it did. It locked up a bit, but we’ll keep driving. I’ll stretch and try to loosen up my back.”
In third place in the class is Estonian Robert Virves, but Mikko Heikkilä is only 1.9 seconds behind him. Lauri Joona, on the other hand, is 7.4 seconds behind Heikkilä.
Rally2 class standings in Rally Finland after SS13/20:
| POS | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Oliver Solberg | Skoda | 1:36:49.7 |
| 2. | Jari-Matti Latvala | Toyota | +18.0 |
| 3. | Robert Virves | Skoda | +50.4 |
| 4. | Mikko Heikkilä | Toyota | +52.3 |
| 5. | Lauri Joona | Skoda | +59.7 |
| 6. | Nikolay Gryazin | Citroen | +1:04.5 |
| 7. | Roope Korhonen | Toyota | +1:07.0 |
| 8. | Georg Linnamäe | Toyota | +1:34.1 |
| 9. | Yohan Rossel | Citroen | +2:15.2 |
| 10. | Josh McErlean | Skoda | +2:16.7 |
| 11. | Teemu Suninen | Hyundai | +2:42.2 |
