Jari-Matti Latvala was philosophical about his defeat by Citroen's Sebastien Ogier in the final stage of the 2011 Jordan Rally.
The Ford driver was quick to point out that he had been at the opposite end of a similar scenario as recently as last year.
“Somebody wins the rally, someone has to lose,” he said. “It’s the same situation as last year in New Zealand when I won and Sebastien [Ogier] lost it by fractions of a second.
“I can’t deny that I’m disappointed. It was so close, we were 0.5 seconds ahead going into the final stage.
“We were absolutely on the limit - we all were, you can tell because the four of us were 0.7 seconds apart on the Power Stage. It’s difficult to say where I would improve - there were a couple of places where I was a little bit wide but I think it’s like that for everybody. At that speed, sometimes when you try so hard you do little mistakes.
“You need to do a perfect performance and today was not my perfect performance.”
BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team Principal Malcolm Wilson praised his driver’s performance: “Some people didn’t think he’d be able to get 30 seconds back. Jari was quite confident but we weren’t sure he’d taken enough time out of Ogier this morning.
“His first stage this afternoon was sensational. We felt right from the word go that this was a rally he could win.”
Credit: World Rally Championship (www.wrc.com)
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