Last week Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala became, at 22 years old, the youngest person in the sports history to win a round of the World Rally Championship, a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact that this was only his second start as a works Ford driver.

Latvala began driving when he was eight years old, after receiving a Ford Escort from his father Jari Latvala, also a rally driver. At the age of ten, Latvala started practicing with an Opel Ascona on a frozen lake.  Latvala’s first world rally was the 2002 Rally Great Britain at the age of 17. He finished in 17th position with a Mitsubish Lancer Evolution VI. In 2003, Latvala competed in four WRC events with a Ford Focus. In 2004, Latvala mostly competed with an S1600 class Junior World Rally Championship car with a Group N Subaru Impreza WRX STI. In the 2005 season, Latvala competed in nine world rallies; six with the Group N Impreza and three with a World Rally Car.

In 2006, Latvala competed in 11 world rallies. He drove the Subaru Impreza WRX STI in six, a Ford Focus WRC in four and a Toyota Corolla WRC at his home event. With the Focus WRC, he recorded his career-best result by finishing fourth at the last event of the season, the Rally Great Britain and he was placed 13th overall in the drivers’ championship.

Last year Latvala competed a full 16-event programme for Stobart M-Sport Ford, where he took his first stage win and podium finish.

For 2008 Latvala joined Ford’s factory team as a number two driver, and scored his historic win at the Swedish Rally.

Official Latvala Motorsport website

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Drivers, Rally. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.