Toyota GAZOO Racing’s Jari-Matti Latvala says he feels “more relaxed” going into Rally Germany after his third-place finish last time out.
The Finnish driver secured a podium result on his home event behind teammate Ott Tänak and Esapekka Lappi and he’s hoping that he can use the strong finish to kick-start his 2019 campaign after several poor results.
Speaking ahead of the return to asphalt for the WRC this weekend, Latvala said: “It was really good to get the podium finish in Finland, and it means that I have a more relaxed feeling going to Germany. Last year we were up to second place when we had a problem on the final day and had to retire, so we know that we can be strong there.”
“I’m really excited to see how we will do and I hope we can be fighting for the podium places again. The last asphalt rally in Corsica was difficult for me but we really worked on this in our test in Germany before Rally Finland: We were working on the braking and the turning, and I had a good feeling in the car.”
Rally Germany gets underway on Thursday evening before three days of tarmac stages on the first asphalt event since the Tour de Corse in March.
