With a comfortable gap of 53.1 seconds over Dani Sordo in third place, Latvala had only to cruise around the 2.5km spectator stage in Mikolajki to secure a one-two victory for Ford - a result which would put them right back in the fight with Citroen for the 2009 manufacturers' title.

Instead, the 24-year-old Finn crashed his Ford Focus on the second bend and was forced to retire from the event. "I wasn't driving too quickly but I turned into the bend too early and clipped an oil barrel which was full of sand. The impact broke the steering and I couldn't turn into the next bend and hit the barrier on the opposite side of the road," Latvala explained.

Hey tom is there a video??? I cant see it...

Latvala oh Latvala..... one of the brightest driving talents around, but he just keeps making very ordinary mistakes

Teaches us all a thing or two about consistency and not losing concentration till the very last inch to the finish line... liked that line....'You can't win a rally in a SSS, but you can sure lose it'.

Malcolm..can understand his predicament, he's got one of the fastest drivers on the circuit in his team..but he would be thinking hard on 2010 contract renewals for Latvala..

@Joey.. the videos are there, check if you're behind a firewall of some sort

Another EMBARASSING moment for Latvala .... and Malcolm with the champagne bottle in his hand didn't know how exactly to react !!!

LOL!!

That my friend .......is the name of the game.

The same thing had happened to Mikko at his home event in Finland when he was at subaru . But yeah very embarrassing.

But imagine if they had a SINGH as manager instead of Malcolm .... How do you think he would have reacted at that incident ?????????????????

Rally Poland is my new fav rally in the WRC , its even faster than Finland in a few stages. Loved watching the highlights .