Finnish driver Jari-Matti Latvala commanded his Polo R rally car to complete the final stage of Rally Argentina and take his second victory of the season. Latvala’s victory also gave Volkswagen their ninth consecutive WRC win, and created a new record, breaking the previous one that was held by Citroen.
On the first day of the rally, reigning world champion Sebastien Ogier drew first-blood as he was the fastest out of the blocks to win the opening stage. The Frenchman beat Mads Ostberg by 3 seconds in their head-to-head battle around the super special stage on the edge of Villa Carlos Paz.
The next day Ogier was also the fastest in the opener from Santa Catalina to La Pampa, but in the second stage it was Latvala who headed the group with the fastest time through the marathon 51.88km stage. Latvala managed to get a 3.3 second advantage over the other drivers in this crucial stage. The lead changed hands three times in four stages as Ogier was back ahead by half a second after the penultimate stage, but then Latvala blitzed his rival in the final stage to an overnight advantage of 17.7 seconds.
On the final day, Ogier had failed to gain ground over the Finn, with Latvala adding a further 30 seconds to his lead on the first stage itself, and after that it looked as if Ogier was not even trying. After the final stage, Ogier claimed that he was not bothered with winning the rally, as he would still retain his 24-point championship lead over Latvala, thanks to his win in the power stage, which bagged him an extra three points. Ogier said, “At the end, we would have had to push like crazy to fight for the victory, so maybe both cars would not be at the end. So for Volkswagen it is maybe better this way.”
Latvala however continued to push through the final stages and he took a comfortable victory with a lead of 1min 26.9seconds over his French teammate. Unfortunately, Volkswagen was denied a podium clean sweep, as Citroen driver Kris Meeke finished in third.
Sebastien Ogier will look to take his revenge at Rally Italy, which is set to take place from 6-8th June 2014.
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