Malcolm Wilson on Jari-Matti Latvala:

The boss of the BP Ford Abu Dhabi team, Malcolm Wilson, has given further details of the accident which took Jari-Matti Latvala out of today’s competition,

Latvala, who had been leading the rally, retired shortly after the end of SS2 when it became clear he wouldn’t be able to get his car to the start of SS3.

“Jari knew that in the conditions he would have to stay in the middle of the road - it just looks like he got caught out,” said Wilson. “It seems he aquaplaned straight ahead and hit a rock with the left-hand front corner. This punctured the tyre and spun the car around. Then the right-hand rear tyre hit something and punctured, too. Obviously the first impact was quite heavy, because it damaged the front left suspension. He tried to fix it but ran out of time.

“It’s a huge disappointment for the team. We knew this wouldn’t be one of our strongest rallies, but we were looking for some reasonable points. But there’s a long way to go. Hopefully we can get Jari out there again tomorrow to get some more experience,” he added.