BP Ford Abu Dhabi's
Jari-Matti Latvala took the final spot on the podium on the Rally d'Italia Sardnega on Sunday, the sixth round in the 2008
FIA World Rally Championship.
Latvala led the event initially, but a mistake in SS2 - when he hit a bank and picked up a puncture - cost him around 90 seconds and he dropped down to 14th.
His fight back from then on though was one of the highlights of the event and with a perfect six quickest stage times from six on day two, the 23-year-old hauled himself back up to second.
Although he eventually finished third, 4.7 seconds by his team-mate,
Mikko Hirvonen, he had much to still be positive about - although he couldn't help wonder what might have been without that error in Crastazza 1 on Friday.
"It's been an eventful rally. On Friday I would have been happy to finish in the top five, so third is fantastic and gives me a big confidence boost. If I hadn't made the mistake [in SS2], who knows what the outcome might have been," he pondered.
"Yesterday however, was amazing and I literally pushed my hardest all day.
"This morning I had a big fight with Mikko and I should have driven better. I had a good road position for two days and today I didn't.
"I didn't have the same confidence because the roads were slippery and there wasn't the same flow. I saw that I couldn't catch Mikko. I was tracking Mikko's split times during the last three stages and followed his pace but I didn't want to take stupid risks to try to pass him - I saw that I couldn't catch him by the middle of stage 16 so I started to ease off.
"Mikko won the fight on the morning stages and second belonged to him. I said at the start of the week a podium was what I was aiming for, and I've achieved that - the job is done."
Khalid Al Qassimi meanwhile took 16th in the 'third' BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT car, having had to re-start under the SupeRally following an impact with a rock in SS4 on Friday.
