Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala says his disappointing time in qualifying for Rally Mexico on Thursday morning was caused partly by himself and partly by running the wrong setup on his Fiesta RS WRC.
Latvala finished the three-mile stage fourth, 2.371sec slower than the benchmark time of his teammate Petter Solberg, and was mystified by his time before gaining greater understanding in the team's debrief.
"There were a couple of things which were wrong this morning," said Latvala. "I went into the stage with the wrong engine map, I screwed up and took the wrong settings. The engine was OK, but it was too soft – I should have been on a more aggressive program.
"I thought I drove well, but on this rally if you push too hard and do a little mistake then it costs time. I went a couple of places wide, but I thought, 'It's OK, it doesn't matter,' but now looking at the data I can see I did lose time. Basically, the car should have been more aggressive and I should have been less aggressive."