VW boss Capito fears Jari-Matti Latvala's WRC title hopes are over

Capito said that the German squad remains 100 per cent behind the Finn, but he fears the 62-point gap between Latvala and series leader Sebastien Ogier could be too big to bridge.

While Ogier's second title defence couldn't have started better, Latvala has struggled to keep pace with his team-mate, going off the road on the last two rallies.

Capito admitted Latvala's mistakes in Sweden and Mexico were understandable as he chased the Frenchman.

He told AUTOSPORT: "For his [Latvala's] championship, being this many points behind Seb is quite... well, the championship... it might be over, huh?

"Anything can happen. He will not give up and we will not give up on him winning rallies.

"You can imagine how difficult it is having a colleague like Seb, but look at some of the times in Mexico - without split times or anything like that, there was just a couple of tenths [of a second] separating them.

"When you are driving at that level, then it's easy to make a mistake."

While Latvala's mistakes have cost Volkswagen valuable points, Capito said he has no intention of revising his team orders policy.

"Jari-Matti did a slight mistake [in Mexico] and this can happen because we do not have team orders," Capito said. "We don't blame anybody for this.

"We could have said: 'OK, you keep positions now, you stay safe - Jari-Matti you stay second.' But we don't do this."

This time last year, Volkswagen was 60 points clear at the top of the manufacturers' table - that gap is just 24 after the opening three 2015 rounds.