Loeb takes the lead at Rally Mexico

Sébastien Loeb took the lead of Rally Mexico on the first pass of the second stage. The Citroën driver's lead over his direct opponents remains very small.

Published on 10/03/2018 à 19:00

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Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) took control of the Rally du Mexique après avoir signé le scratch dans les 31km de Guanajuatito (ES11), premier parcours de la deuxième étape, où il a devancé son rival direct Dani Sordo (Hyundai) d’une douzaine de secondes. Le nonuple champion du WRC retains the lead of the event at midday even if the Spaniard came back to less than three seconds of the Alsatian after the passage of El Brinco (SS13).

The fight is also in full swing for third place. Sébastien Ogier (M-Sport) est revenu à hauteur de Kris Meeke (Citroën) malgré des prestations convaincantes de la part du Nord-Irlandais. Les deux hommes pointent à moins de 16 secondes de la tête de la course et restent encore candidats à la victoire. Ils ont également profité de l’abandon d’Ott Tänak (Toyota) qui occupait la troisième place avant de rencontrer des problèmes de turbo dans la première spéciale du jour.

The ranking is longer from the fifth place occupied by Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) who is now almost 50 seconds behind his direct opponents while he followed Sébastien Ogier by a few tenths on the evening of the first stage. The Norwegian is ahead of his teammate Thierry Neuville who lost more time by encountering mechanical problems after crossing a ford.

Pontus Tidemand (Skoda) is alone at the head of WRC 2 with around ten minutes ahead of his pursuers. The Swede occupies seventh place in the general classification ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota).

The second passage of the second stage of the Rally of Mexico will be contested from 21:21 p.m. Paris time and will be followed live with our live text.