Latvala wins again in France
Volkswagen's Jari-Matti Latvala took his third victory of the season on Tour de Corse - Rallye de France on Sunday.
It was his second successive win in France - after triumphing on last year's event in Alsace - and his second on asphalt, although the event in Corsica was far from easy, with torrential rain forcing organisers to cancel both runs through the 43.69 km test through Casamozza-Ponte Leccia - SS2 and SS4 - due to flooding and landslides.
"It's been a great weekend. We haven't been at the maximum at any point, but we had to be careful driving in difficult conditions," Latvala told the official WRC site.
"I won the Rallye de France last year, so I'm so happy to be able to win here in Corsica too."
Latvala finished the wet opening day in third, 22.9 seconds behind M-Sport's Elfyn Evans, who went top with a brilliant time in SS3.
The weather improved on Saturday, but conditions remained tricky in SS5, although that didn't stop Latvala, who closed on Evans, slashing the gap to just 1.7s, before moving ahead in SS6.
Going into the final leg, Latvala had a 2 second cushion, but he soon stretched it, taking it to 17.6s in SS7 and 32.7s in SS8. He eventually won by 43.1 seconds, after coming third in the event ending Power Stage.
Meanwhile, Evans managed to hold off VW Motorsport II pilot Andreas Mikkelsen to take the runners-up spot.
It was Evans' best result to date in the WRC and only his second-ever podium, after finishing third in Argentina earlier this year.
"Andreas was pushing hard today but I thought as long as I had a clean [final] stage we'd keep it," said Evans. "I'm pretty happy. After the hard times recently and the criticism this is a nice little sweetener."
"I tried to push hard," added Mikkelsen, who had been 28.8s back last night, but was just 3.2s back after the final test, "At the same time though I wanted to go to Spain and GB with a good [championship points] position.
"I'm happy with my strategy."
Behind, Citroen's Kris Meeke was a lonely fourth, 47.1 seconds further adrift, with Hayden Paddon fifth in his Hyundai, overhauling the other Citroen of Mads Ostberg in the penultimate test.
Dani Sordo recovered from hitting a stone and breaking a wheel rim in SS3 on Friday - that left him down in 13th - to climb back to seventh, leapfrogging on the final day Bryan Bouffier, Stephane Sarrazin and Ott Tanak in positions 8 through to 10. He also went quickest in SS8.
Citroen youngster Stephane Lefebvre finished just outside the points on his third outing with the DS 3 WRC, a spin at the end costing him the chance to steal tenth from Tanak.
Further back Martin Prokop was 12th and three-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier came home in 15th under Rally 2, losing time with a puncture in SS3 Friday, before then having to retire on the road section due to a gear shift problem. Ogier, however, was quickest in the Power Stage - more than 8.6s up on former F1 driver Robert Kubica.
Kubica and Hyundai's Thierry Neuville also finished under Rally 2. Kubica, who jointly held the overall lead with Ogier after SS1, finished just outside the top-20, forced out on Saturday in SS5 when he had two punctures. The Pole was only carrying one spare. Neuville was one spot further back having retired on Friday after hitting a bridge just 1.2 km into the first test.
In the support categories, Julien Maurin took the WRC2 class victory in his Fiesta, 21.6s up on Esapekka Lappi's Skoda Fabia R5. Eric Camilli completed the WRC2 podium, with Craig Breen fourth and Teemu Suninen fifth.
Quentin Gilbert took the JWRC / WRC3 win to secure the Junior title, 37.8s up on Simone Tempestini - WRC3 only - and 1m 18.8s up on Terry Folb.
As for retirements, Hyundai fourth driver Kevin Abbring retired in the penultimate stage after going off the road. He had finished day one in second, before slipping back to fifth on Saturday. WRC2 runner Armin Kremer went out on Sunday as well, crashing in SS7. He had been running third in class.
The World Rally Championship now resumes at the end of the month with RallyRACC Catalunya-Costa Daurada running from October 22-25
To view the result for Tour de Corse - Rallye de France 2015 - CLICK HERE.
