How we’ve missed Jari-Matti Latvala behind the wheel. The Finn’s fifth place offered an engaging subplot to a fast and fascinating ninth round of this year’s World Rally Championship.
The story behind the 38-year-old’s 210th WRC start was covered pretty much wall-to-wall last week. But what about his in-car countryman? What about Juho Hänninen?
Six years ago he was driving a factory Toyota Yaris WRC onto the podium at Rally Finland. He’s a European Rally champion with 56 WRC starts of his own.
What were his thoughts on the week?
Perhaps unkindly, there were a few folk predicting the #97 Toyota might end up in the trees. By his own admission, Latvala’s a man who has rippled the odd panel down the years, but he was determined to keep this one dirty side down.
“If he starts to get carried away,” Hänninen said, “I’m getting him out. I told him that.”
We laughed. Juho didn’t.
“Seriously,” he added.
We laughed a bit more. Juho joined us. Nervously.
Talking to him before the start of the Laukaa stage on Friday morning, the nerves were evident. Not obvious, but there. HANS and helmet were pulled on, then checked. And checked again. He fiddled with the notes. Opened the book. Read a page, put it back in the bag.
Other side of the car, Latvala was doing his expansive impression of a windmill, standing feet wide apart and swinging his arms about the place. That done, he jumped up and down on the spot.
Climbing aboard, Jari-Matti tightened his belts and sat, just for a moment, eyes closed. Deep in thought. These are the kind of moments you, as a journalist, step away from. Watch from afar.
Hänninen fished the timecard out, found his page in the pacenotes and, once more, tightened his belts.
“Good to get the first morning done,” he said at Friday lunchtime. “It’s going well. He’s asking a little bit to see the [stage] times. What I can do? I’m not telling him. I don’t look to the phone. We need to drive and enjoy.”
Sitting fifth on Saturday lunchtime, the smiles were getting wider, but Hänninen had to keep them in check.
“We have a good rhythm,” said the co-driver. “He’s talking a little bit more in the stage – we had a conversation in one stage! He’s getting more relaxed, we both are. But he’s still asking for the stage times. At the end of the last one, he asked three times. I’m not telling him.
“He is basically begging me for them, but I keep telling him that’s not why we are here!
“Keeping him under control is different on this rally and in this car. If you get too excited, because he’s not, let’s say, in the routine with this car, it could be dangerous. I can feel when he’s getting more excited and pushing harder. We didn’t have any moments and hopefully there are none coming. We still have some margin.
“And anyway, when it gets really fast, I just don’t look out of the window!”
You know Jari-Matti, we knew that this would be coming!Juho Hänninen
But what about the tech and engineering side? Was Juho frantically swapping fronts for rears and working on suspension clicks at every opportunity?
“Actually, no,” he said. “Jari-Matti has been really good from that side. There have been small changes – but he this is not about the setup. Normally he’s doing a click here or there on every road section. He’s not doing that.”
Still asking for the stage times?
“Three times last stage,” he said. “I told him no.”
The Latvala story was great, but digging a little deeper and digging into Hänninen’s story was so worthwhile. And so entertaining.
All too soon, three days in the car were done and Sunday’s finish line was crossed.
What was the chat on the way back to Jyväskylä. Another one?
“No!” laughed Juho. “To be honest on the last road section coming to the finish, [Latvala said] something about making it possible for another event. I said: ‘Hey, this would be why we are here! It’s supposed to be once with the big thing.'”
More laughing. “You know Jari-Matti, we knew that this would be coming!”
There will, of course, be another event – the Hokkaido Rally next month. The Latvala-Hänninen duo will be running the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 in Obihiro.
“I will be going there,” said Hänninen. “I wanted to see how this one was going first. I think Obihiro will be more calm – it’s far from all the WRC hassle. I think he will be more relaxed and, of course, there’s the main reason for that rally… the Japanese food!”
It’s probably fair to give Jari-Matti the final word.
“I have to say a very big thank you to Juho,” he said. “He kept me under control. We wanted to have some fun and he really made sure we did have the fun. You know, I was asking him before the start: ‘Hey, do you want to drive a stage?’ He didn’t want to. I would have been happy for that, but it was nice to drive.
“This whole week has been fantastic. I have to say a big thank you to Akio [Toyoda] for doing my job and for the whole team. This was like a dream to do this again.”
