Toyota's team principal has personal experience of battling Ogier when he gets angry...
Photography by Toyota
Words by David Evans, DirtFish Head of Media
Watching last month’s Rally del Paraguay from afar, Jari-Matti Latvala couldn’t help but smile to himself. He’d seen that look, he’d heard that voice and he’d taken on Sébastien Ogier in this mood too many times… and lost.
Talking about Paraguay winner Ogier’s frustrations at the rain arriving just in time for his run at the powerstage, Latvala admitted this could be just the spark the Frenchman needs to fully ignite his bid for a record-equalling ninth world championship.
“I know this look from Sébastien,” Latvala told DirtFish. “I have seen it before, many times in my career. His passion for winning is at the highest I have ever seen from anybody in the WRC at times like this. He wants to fight and when that moment, the chance to fight is taken away from him, he gets very upset. It takes some time, but he resets – and when he comes back he is really dangerous. I have learned, the more angry he gets, the more he will fight.
“Now we know he’s really going on the title hunt. This is clear, the message that he gave is he wants to win the title. That is, of course, making it more interesting – but also harder for Elfyn [Evans], for Kalle [Rovanperä] and Ott [Tänak]. In the beginning of the year, maybe it wasn’t so clear but now I can see that this will happen. And Paraguay, what happened at the end, this will boost Sébastien and give him even more motivation for the championship fight.
“Last year it was a little bit too far for the points, but now he’s at his most dangerous for sure.”
With just four rounds of the series remaining and only 18 points splitting Evans in first from Tänak in fourth, Latvala is predicting more action through Chile, Central Europe, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
“Any one of the four can still win the title,” he added. “Elfyn, for instance, once again had a very, very clever drive in Paraguay and came away with great, great points to maintain his lead in the championship. We also have to remember that these guys, when they start to fight, and when we start to go so close to the end of the year, there will be definitely mistakes will happen between these drivers sooner or later.
“The speed is so high and whoever can stay away from those mistakes is in a strong position for the win the title.”
Words:David Evans
Tags: Jari-Matti Latvala, Rally Chile, Rally Chile 2025, Sébastien Ogier, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date September 11, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/09/GNWFYHmh-Ogier10PAR25cm476-1-780x520.jpg September 11, 2025
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