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Toyota testing new alternator that stopped Latvala on Rally Mexico

The Toyota World Rally Championship team will start testing a new alternator this week in an effort to solve the problem that halted Jari-Matti Latvala on Rally Mexico.

Latvala's Yaris WRC lost electrical charge ahead of the evening superspecial last Friday, forcing him out of fourth place.

The problem was centred on a connection on the McLaren-supplied alternator that failed in the extreme heat.

Team principal Tommi Makinen was keen to point out that this issue was in no way related to the cooling problems the team suffered in previous years in Mexico, adding this was a specific problem with the connection on the alternator.

"We asked them if they could modify the connection to make it a manual connection that wouldn't be affected by the heat, but this hasn't happened," Makinen explained.

"We will make a comparison test with another supplier on the dyno to find a solution to this.

"We will start this work as soon as we get back next week.

"We have to fix this now."

Latvala's alternator issue aside, the three Toyotas all ran without any technical problems in the heat and altitude that had slowed them on the Yaris's two previous Rally Mexico outings.

Ott Tanak maintained his championship lead by finishing second, Kris Meeke led briefly before a puncture left him fifth at the finish and Latvala got back to eighth under Rally2.

Zdroj: autosport.com