WRC: Ogier dominates Rally Mexico as Loeb returns with P5 finish

WRC: Ogier dominates Rally Mexico as Loeb returns with P5 finish

M-Sport’s Sebastien Ogier with co-driver Julien Ingrassia returned to the top spot in the 2018 World Rally Championship standings after winning the Rally Guanajuato Mexico in his Ford Fiesta WRC car. The Frenchman claimed his second victory of the season.

He had a clear margin of 1hr13.6s from second placed Hyundai’s Dani Sordo (co-driver Carlos del Barrio), who made his return to WRC after missing Sweden. The Spaniard started off the Mexican rally on a good note after he leapt into the lead in SS3 and stayed put until SS10.

He won SS3 and SS4, but couldn’t keep the momentum for more stage wins and eventually was overtaken by returning nine-time WRC champion Sebastien Loeb with co-driver Daniel Elena in his Citroen C3, driving for the Citroen Abu Dhabi WRT outfit.

The Frenchman gained on Sordo in the latter stages on Friday, before taking over in SS11 early on Saturday. But his lead was short-lived as Ogier popped up to take over in SS14. The reigning champion then stayed on top for the remainder of the rally, slowly extending his lead.

Ogier won five stages (SS10 & SS14-17) in all - the most in the rally. He now has 60 points and a nine point advantage over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville. The two drivers have a decent advantage over Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen.

Even though Sordo secured second, but it was a mistake from Citroen’s Kris Meeke (co-driver Paul Nagle) in SS20 which allowed the Spaniard to move one place up. Fortunately, the crash didn’t prove catastrophic for the Irish driver to lose more than the one position.

Meeke then had to settle for third after wins in SS2, SS6, SS13 and SS19, which included a brief rally lead after SS2. Behind, Mikkelsen (co-driver Andrers Jaeger-Synnevaag) was fourth after his SS20 win. The Norwegian had troubles with the set-ups, but managed to hang on to a Top 5 finish.

After a puncture relegated him to fifth in Saturday’s SS14, Loeb hung on to the position for the remainder of the rally. The Frenchman did well to win SS7, SS11 and SS12 and to also lead the rally briefly despite not having run in the WRC for long as his competitors.

In sixth was the former championship leader Neuville (co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul). The Belgian endured mechanical issues on Friday and had further troubles on Saturday in what was a nightmarish rally for the 29-year-old, with only consolation of SS1 win.

With the Toyotas also having troubles, WRC2’s Pontus Tidemand in his Skoda R5 took seventh overall and also victory in his category. The first of the Toyotas was Jari-Matti Latvala (co-driver Miikka Anttila) in eighth position.

The Finn had to stop on Friday with an alternator issue in SS10 which dropped him down to 12th overall, but he was 15 hours behind the leader. He managed to recover into the points on Saturday and made up more places after SS21 win to salvage some points for Toyota.

The Top 10 was rounded out by the WRC2 podium finishers Gus Greensmith in his Ford Fiesta and Pedro Heller – also in the Ford. Meanwhile, Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi (co-driver Janne Ferm) could only manage 11th after the Finn crashed on Friday.

He dropped to 18th and over 29 hours behind the leaders with a big task to return into the points. In the end, he missed on a Top 10 finish by 6m39.7s from Heller. Teammate Ott Tanak (co-driver Martin Jarveoja) endured turbo problems on Saturday forcing him to retire from the day’s running.

Despite the troubles, the Estonian managed to eke out four stage wins (SS8, SS9, SS21 & SS21), which included the Power Stage to be 14th overall – salvaging few more points for the Japanese manufacturer in a difficult rally for the team.

While Ogier took victory for M-Sport, his teammates had a troubled run. Both Teemu Suninen (co-driver Mikko Markkula) and Elfyn Evans (co-driver Dan Barritt) had separate incidents on Friday. The former returned to finish 12th, with the latter retiring from the event after concussion to Barritt in the incident.

The manufacturers' standings still has Hyundai in the lead with 84 points - having a 12 points advantage over M-Sport. Just one point behind M-Sport is Citroen, while Toyota is a further four from the French manufacturer, as they head over to Corsica for Rally France during the April 5-8 weekend.

from SportsFlashes.com http://ift.tt/2DlDIQO