The last time a Solberg and a Latvala battled at Rally Finland was an awful long time ago: 12 years, in fact.
Back in 2012, it was Petter vs Jari-Matti as the pair piloted the two factory Fords. Latvala won, but truthfully, neither did: Citroën romped to a 1-2 with Sébastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen.
Fast forward to 2024 and Oliver got one back for the Solberg clan by beating Latvala to victory in WRC2.
“The fight with Jari-Matti has been really special for me all weekend really, because I remember in 2012 I was in Ford and he was younger then and my dad was the old one,” Solberg laughed, who was just 10 years old at the time.
Latvala drove alongside Oliver's father, Petter, for the Ford team back in 2012
“I remember Jari-Matti from that time and he was my idol because he was always very nice and very kind. I remember his father also, and it was a great time and now to race against him is very special.”
Not many predicted they would be in a race, though. The thinking was that Solberg would be the benchmark and Latvala would filter in somewhere near the top, but not necessarily the very front. Latvala himself had said he would have been satisfied with a top-five finish on his first ever WRC event in Rally2 machinery.
Solberg didn’t subscribe to that theory. Before a wheel was turned competitively, the Swede felt Latvala would be his biggest challenger.
The fact that the 39-year-old Finn, who nowadays spends World Rally Championship events acting as Toyota’s team principal instead of driving, was so competitive came as absolutely no surprise to Solberg.
“Not at all,” he told DirtFish.
Solberg predicted Latvala would be his closest challenger in Finland
“He tests a lot, of course he tests a lot. He’s in the team, as a representative for Toyota, you don’t come unprepared when you’re doing an official rally.
“And he knows the roads. He’s the two-time winner of Rally Finland. For me, he’s one of the fastest guys in the world, or was, at least.
“He was not far off [last year in the Rally1],” Solberg added.
“More and more into the rally, he was not far off. So I was not surprised. I told everyone before the rally that he will be the one to fight with me.”
Solberg eventually beat Latvala by 39.0 seconds, a gap that likely would have been halved had Latvala not spun on the second pass of Ouninpohja.
Latvala was however surprised he was able to be so competitive.
“It’s been a positive surprise for me, the level where we are, because as I said before the event, the inside top five, but to be now second and we’ve been able to win a couple of stages has been really, really nice,” Latvala told DirtFish.
Latvala targeted a top-five but came home second in Finland
“But the nice thing to see is that the gaps are very small between drivers, so many drivers can get very close to each other, so there’s a good level.
“But of course, I must say that you can see that Oliver is very strong in this class. You’ve seen it all year, but now I can also feel it myself when I’ve been driving. So he has done extremely well.”
The obvious question is whether Latvala will be back out in the GR Yaris Rally2 again.
“Of course I would like to drive more if there is a chance,” he said, “but at the moment there is not. Honestly, it’s… I really enjoyed it.”
However, he is already manifesting plans for another Rally Finland outing in 2025.
“Next year I’m going to be 40 years old, this was my 19th Rally Finland start so there’s a big celebration year,” he explained.
“It will be my 20th start next year if I will be in the event, 40 years old. So I guess I have to drive…”
