Jari-Matti Latvala fears eighth will be the limit of his Rally New Zealand recovery drive
Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala has admitted a top-eight result is as much as he can hope for on this week's Rally New Zealand, after he went off the road on Friday's opening leg
Having led the event following the opening stage, Latvala started day two only ninth overall because he dropped four minutes when he went off the road on SS7 on Friday afternoon.
Latvala could only manage seventh fastest time on Saturday morning's opening stage, which was enough to move him past Armindo Araujo for eighth place - but he is now more than two minutes off Dani Sordo's Mini in seventh.
"I am going as hard as I can," said Latvala, "but I am fifth on the road and the road is cleaning. The top eight is all I can hope for now, unfortunately.
"This is where we are. It's quite a difficult day. The difference is too much to the cars ahead."
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About this article
| Series | WRC |
| Drivers | Jari-Matti Latvala |
| Author | David Evans |
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