Latvala crashes out in SS1, OK to re-start.

Stobart VK number two driver, Jari-Matti Latvala crashed out on the opening stage of the Rallye Deutschland on Friday, when he was caught out by a slippery section of the vineyard road.

Latvala was halfway through the 20.04 kilometre Ruwertal/Fell 1 test when he went off the road and ploughed straight on due to the reduced grip level. Unlike other competitors who suffered a similar fate at the same spot, the Finn though was unable to take evasive action with his handbrake in time and hit the barrier, wedging his car underneath. Although it was a relatively low-speed incident in which Latvala and co-driver, Miikka Anttila were unhurt it was sufficient to strand their car in the stage and as a result the test was stopped. Only 18 of the 73 drivers' therefore managed to complete the stage at 'race speed', the rest were given a notional time.

"I was driving at a safe speed, it was very slippery so I was being quite sensible. It was a fast downhill section and I braked early but at the end of the braking zone it was like ice and we went straight on into the barrier," he explained.

"It was the same section where Marcus [Gronholm], Mikko [Hirvonen] and Gareth McHale hit the barrier but they managed to grab the handbrake in time and hit the back of their cars. We went straight on and hit the front and were stranded under the barrier. The damage is not so bad and we are both fine as the speed was not that high, but although the damage is not so bad the car has to be all ready for Finland so we will have to see what happens. It is the most important rally for me and to have a problem so early is not good. There is something not right in my head perhaps!" he added.

The Stobart VK outfit has since revealed though that he will be able to re-start on Saturday under the SupeRally: "The M-Sport crew were able to fix the car in service for it to be ready to return to the event for Saturday's second leg," confirmed a statement from them.

Matthew Wilson meanwhile didn't fare that much better in the sister car and although he drove cautiously in the difficult conditions he was powerless to prevent a pipe coming off his turbo after a hard landing on the final test of the morning loop of four stages. This allied to a careful first stage of the day meant that Wilson entered the lunchtime service stop way down in 47th position overall.

The afternoon loop, run over the same stages, saw the 19 year-old opt for slick tyres as the conditions appeared to have abated, but the region lived up to its reputation for changeable weather. After a relatively dry first stage to the second loop the heavens opened once more making it all the more difficult for Wilson in the exceedingly slippery conditions on his slick dry weather tyres. Despite this, he was able to work his way back up the order, making 22 positions on the leaderboard to end the day 29th overall.

"It was an unbelievable day, very difficult," reflected Wilson Jr. "The first stage was so slippery as it was very wet and there was gravel kicked out on the stage from the cars in front, making it very tricky. The next two stages were difficult as they are under trees and it's difficult to know where was wet at that point and where had dried out. Then in the fourth stage a turbo pipe came apart after we landed coming up to a left hander about 2km into the stage so we couldn't go through at full pace.

"The afternoon was very, very slippery again. We changed to slicks but the rain came back. The first stage in the afternoon was okay, then there were torrential downpours in the next two, it was scarily slippery. We struggled in the final stage as we hadn't run through it at a competitive pace in the morning. I'm glad to get through the day and tomorrow will be very difficult if the weather is like this. At least I can look forward to Sunday's stages. The weather made it difficult today as everyone expected, I was having big slides everywhere."