Latvala denies reports of rift with Ogier at Volkswagen

In stories published earlier on Tuesday, Latvala was reportedly critical of Ogier, being quoted as saying that the Frenchman refused to share information with him.

But the Finn insists he was misquoted, telling Motorsport.com's sister title Autosport: “These words were not mine.

“I didn’t say Seb refused to talk after tests. The words were a bad translation.

"I was really upset about this, it’s not my style to talk about a team and a driver in this way and I would like to apologise to both Seb and the team for any upset caused.

"But they know me well enough to know this isn’t me.”

Last week’s Monte Carlo Rally runner-up was talking about life at Volkswagen alongside Ogier, and how different it was to his experience as teammate to Mikko Hirvonen at Ford.

“When I was at Ford, Sebastien Loeb was so dominant," he said. "Mikko and I had to work together to try to beat him, we couldn’t do it on our own.

“When I went to Volkswagen, it was different. There was nobody there to help me try to beat this new Sebastien.

"When you are in the same team as a four-time world champion, you are alone and I had to fight against him in a different way with a different philosophy. This was what I was saying.”

Latvala said the way of working at Toyota was more reminiscent of Ford, adding: “Now I am back working with Juho [Hanninen] and the two of us are working to try to beat Ogier. It’s more like Ford again.”