Wilson praises Ford Italian job

Wilson believes his team are still well-placed to challenge Citroen

BP Ford Abu-Dhabi team boss Malcolm Wilson praised the performance of his drivers following their 1-2 in the Rally d'Italia in Sardinia.

Jari Matti-Latvala came home 29.4 seconds clear of team-mate Mikko Hirvonen as BP Ford finally broke Citroen's stranglehold on the season.

"It was the perfect weekend," Wilson told BBC Radio Cumbria.

"Unfortunately Jari hasn't had the best of seasons. But it was a great turnaround from him."

Latvala's future with the Dovenby Hall-based team had come under intense speculation following a disappointing start to the season.

We've still got a mountain to climb to try and get back in the lead of both the championships

Malcolm Wilson

"To be honest his position in the team has never been in question," Wilson said.

"We invested in him when he was a 17-year-old and we've been with him almost all of the way.

"I've always felt there was huge potential there. He's had a very difficult start to the season but hopefully now a lot of those things are behind him."

Latvala now lies sixth overall after taking his first win of the campaign.

Sebastien Loeb remains out front in the World Rally Championship despite seeing his winning run come to an end in Sardinia.

Loeb ended up with fourth place at the weekend but still leads the way by 17 points at the half-way point of the campaign ahead of Mikko Hirvonen who climbed up to second after his runner-up slot.

Failure to score means Dani Sordo has now dropped to third.

Citroen remain out in front in the manufacturers' championship but a one-two for Ford has seen the gap between the pair come down to 28 points.

"We've still got a mountain to climb to try and get back in the lead of both the championships," Wilson added.

"But we've got some good events coming up that really suit our car and drivers so hopefully we can start to make an impression on the lead that Citroen have at the moment."

Wilson also said he was happy with the performance of the works car in Sardinia after improvements to the differentials, dampers and suspension.

"The performance of the car has been fantastic," he said. "The great thing is within the Ford team is I feel I've got the only two drivers who can actually take the challenge to Sebastian Loeb."

Wilson's son Matthew finished sixth in Sardinia for the Stobart Ford team after recovering well from hydraulic problems on Friday.

"(It was) another very solid performance," Malcolm Wilson told BBC Radio Cumbria's Matchnight programme. "He's been in a position to score points on every rally so far.

"It's big progress. From my side, the progress is being made by the difference between the winning margin and his performance. Every event that is reducing so at the moment he is still going in the right direction."