Jari-Matti Latvala's hopes of winning Rally Finland for a second time have been hurt by brake problems as Citroen Abu Dhabi's Kris Meeke remains on track for a podium finish at the event.
Latvala’s Volkswagen will start Sunday’s final leg of the three-day World Rally Championship (WRC) event with a narrow lead of 3.4 seconds over his Volkswagen teammate Sebastian Ogier.
The Finn’s advantage had been as much as 31.1 seconds on Stage 19 of the 26-stage event, but problems with his brakes, which began on Stage 20, saw him lose 26 seconds to Ogier in the day’s final four stages.
Despite seeing his lead whittled away, Latvala, who won the event driving for Ford in 2010, was still upbeat on his prospects of winning for a third time in 2014, with just three stages, covering a total of 36 kilometres, left to be faced by the drivers on the Finnish gravel.
“We’re not a lot in the lead, but the main thing is we are in the lead,” he told wrc.com. “Tomorrow are two great stages that I’m really looking forward to. We have to fight there for sure.”
Ogier, the world champion, leads the standings in 2014 by 50 points from Latvala and a victory is crucial, on paper, to the Finn’s hopes of catching his teammate in the remaining five events of the season after Finland.
But that is not what will be motivating Latvala on Sunday.
“I don’t have to worry about the championship,” he said. “For me, it’s all about winning this rally. It’s all or nothing.”
Ogier noted that his teammate’s misfortune had created an unexpected opportunity to win the rally for a second successive year.
“I cannot smile too much about the situation,” the Frenchman said. “It’s a chance, yes, but Jari was doing a really good job and had bad luck. It will make it interesting tomorrow.”
Ogier had started the day third, but he quickly moved ahead of Meeke, who continued his impressive performance as the nearest challenger to the dominant Volkswagens.
The Northern Irishman is 32.4 seconds adrift of Latvala and acknowledged he had endured a couple of dramas during his day.
“We had a big impact in a hole and the whole car jumped up – the holes are appearing all over the place,” he said of the Finnish roads.
It was not a good day for Meeke’s teammate Mads Ostberg, who crashed out of the rally on Stage 18 while running in fifth place.
* With agency
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