The post-rally news of Jari-Matti's censure for breaching FIA regulations broke in the small hours of the morning but spread like wildfire. By the time most Europeans were breakfasting, the rally-following population was abuzz with the story.
Since everybody and dog is fully up to speed with what Jari-Matti was pinged for and what the penalty was/wasn't, I'll skip on the deets. But I will proffer an opinion.
This development was an uncharacteristic abberation from the Finnish driver. I suppose you had to be in Latvala's shoes to understand fully what took place, but from the lofty moral heights of the internet blogosphere, it looks like he briefly lost his marbles.
The accident was one of several that occurred in that particular place, and the impact was significant. But despite that, Latvala was able to keep the Polo rolling - unlike most of the others who required spectator assistance to rescue them from their predicaments - and in my opinion, it's this fluke that became the root of the issues that followed. Because the impact to the Polo was great enough for the crew to expect to be stuck there in a broken rally car.
Miraculous then was the situation that the crew found themselves in, still able to continue with little more than a fright and a few lost seconds. You can almost hear them yelling "Halleluja" (or a suitable Finnish expletive) when the disaster unfolding before them seemed incredibly to have been avoided.
So as any self-respecting rally ace would do in the circumstances, Jari-Matti floored it to minimise the time lost recovering from the off. A pity then that a spectator, illegally situated it should be said, decided to risk life and limb by attempting to rescue his camera gear from the path of the snarling World Rally Car.
Not a wise choice, since that meant he too would be in harm's way. As it happened, a combination of the Polo's relatively slow speed at that moment and the spectator's reflex action of jumping into the air at the moment of impact moderated the collision into a glancing blow which looked somewhat worse than it turned out to be.
Inside the car, Latvala's view of the events was partially obscured by steam flowing from the car's grill and wheel arch, over the bonnet (hood) and the windscreen, adding to the impression in that brief moment that it wasn't anything of consequence. So Jari-Matti chose to continue to leverage the miraculous escape that they'd experienced and he kept the Polo's momentum going, regaining the road and continuing the stage.
It's impossible to imagine that either of the Polo's crew members would have let the other continue had they entertained for an instant that they had injured somebody. The popular persona of either Finn just makes callousness of that kind completely out of the question. So it was also totally within character that Jari-Matti would enquire as to the welfare of the spectator at stage end, and it was that enquiry that got the Finn the punishment eventually meted out.
In the end, it seems to me that justice was done in the sentence of a one-rally ban, (suspended), plus a 5,000 Euro fine. After all, the rules regarding failure to stop and ascertain the possible injury to any non-crewmember are well known and make good sense - running over your fanbase is not a particularly good way to encourage spectating, among other reasons, despite the failure of the spectator in question to watch the stage from a legal, sanctioned position.
It was just one of those moments where something potentially catastrophic was avoided in such an unlikely circumstance, that not being able to capitalise on that good fortune was just unthinkable to the driver. The ill-advised actions of the spectator threatened to undo that miracle, so it seems quite a human thing for Latvala to read into the incident the least dire interpretation available to him, and well... just carry on.
In the crucible that is the World Rally Championship, mere tenths of a second here and there can be the difference between gaining a podium or maybe losing a seat. It's hard not to conclude that on another day, Jari-Matti would simply have stopped, been assured the spectator was OK, and continued to an adjusted stage time without drama.
I suspect the Finn will remember this lesson well on future rallies.
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