Finland's Ford World Rally Team driver Jari-Matti Latvala took a well-deserved victory at the World Rally Championship's sixth round of the 2009 season.
The Finn's remarkable performance on the Mediterranean island marked his second WRC career win.
Latvala was overjoyed as he arrived at the finish line, jumping out of his seat to shout "A great victory" in Italian before kissing the Ford logo pasted upon his Focus RS WRC's hood. A round of generous applause greeted him, a welcome moment for Latvala after the season's difficult start and his major accident at Rally Portugal in early April.
All in all, Jari-Matti Latvala's performance in Sardinia will surely be a perfect confidence boost when considering that championship considerations were put aside on this occasion - team orders were not called in and the Ford team allowed Latvala to record a much-deserved victory: "It's a big relief."
"A great thanks to the team, they did great work. This really means a lot to me," Latvala said with a wide smile. "It's fantastic."

Ford teammate Mikko Hirvonen thought he could catch up and overtake the eventual Rally Sardinia winner, but instead he claimed the second step of the podium. The Finn was nonetheless evidently satisfied with his result despite not winning the event: "I had a good car, a good rally, it's been a good fight. Jari-Matti definitely deserves this victory. Now we must continue like this."
This being his fourth second-place finish of the season, Hirvonen good-naturedly added: "Being second is my destiny."

Despite all the troubles this weekend, including a bad position in the starting order, a late-arrival penalty and a punctured tyre as well, Sebastien Loeb fought back and managed to reach third position overall.
The Frenchman looked at the positive points: "Third place, we keep the lead in the championship, for the moment I only lose two points on Mikko."
The Frenchman also kept in mind the difficulties encountered over the three days of racing: "All the trouble we had – it didn't work this weekend."
Loeb's third-place was penalized after the rally's end being penalized with 2 minutes and results were published after the FIA stewards' investigation into the events surrounding yesterday's tyre change, as the seatbelt regulations may have been breached in the haste to change the wheel. The decision will be known later today.

Petter Solberg struggled all weekend with his upgraded privateer Citroen Xsara WRC, which suffered in the Sardinian heat as the engine temperature often rose beyond preferable levels. The Norwegian felt quite pleased with his overall fourth place: "It was good fun!. Unfortunately the car was so bad after the first stage out of service (today), I lost so much time," he said, referring to the steering system problems which also arose in addition to the engine overheat during the closing stages.
Solberg was very relieved to simply reach the finish line: "I was scared for the high temperature, I was afraid that something might happen."

Evgeny Novikov did well indeed for himself and the Citroen Junior Team by securing fifth position in the standings. "It was a very good rally for me, we had a lot of fun this weekend," said the young Russian.
Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson was the sixth-best driver on this event and might have been in a position to challenge Novikov were it not for a mechanical issue. "Pity it was the last day," said the Briton. "We lost over a minute and a half on Friday due to hydraulic problems. There is still a lot of work to be done but it's another good result."
"I am quite happy," declared seventh-placed Mads Ostberg, although the Norwegian believes he could have done better at the controls of his Adapta Team Subaru Impreza WRC. "It was very difficult," he said of his weekend. "Unfortunately we had a broken steering arm yesterday."
Henning Solberg took eighth place and the final available point for the Stobart Ford team, fighting right up until the end and appearing at the finish line with damage at the front of his car.
His heart sank a bit when he discovered, looking at the leaderboard, that he missed beating Ostberg by six tenths of a second. "I have tried, I am happy," he said.

In the drivers' championship, Sebastien Loeb holds 56 points to Mikko Hirvonen's 38, with Jari-Matti Latvala now at 31 points. In the manufacturers' standings, Citroen counts 89 points to Ford's 61.
For the record, Loeb won Rally Sardinia's final stage ahead of the Solberg brothers, Petter and Henning, with Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala rounding out the top five.

The next World Rally Championship round will take place in Greece at the Acropolis Rally, from 12-14 June.