Who can “have the skin” of Sébastien Ogier in Mexico?

Fans of westerns with all their dust, cacti and cold-eyed villains may be disappointed at the end of this 3^e round of the season. The statistics of Sébastien Ogier on this race make him the best bounty hunter on the board. He is also the one and only “gringo” present at the start to have left León with the sombrero and the pair of cowboy boots which are given to the winner. A (false!) legend says that he even had to enlarge his trophy room to accommodate the huge Mexican hats that we are always happy to bring back from the country until the time arrives to board the plane…

In short, in 12 participations, the Frenchman won 6 times and he only had one retirement in 2011 (exit while he was fighting with Sébastien Loeb his teammate). To fully understand the excellence of this data, we must not forget that on two occasions, Seb did not have a car capable of winning. In 2008, for his debut in WRC, the “tender foot” was riding a C2 S1600 that he had driven in the 8^e rank. Then, during his first campaign with Volkswagen in 2012, he raced in a Skoda Fabia S2000 and again he finished 8^e. The rest of the time, he always appeared on the podium (9 in total) and most often at the top.

The rare drivers to have had Ogier's scalp in Guanajuato are Jari-Matti Latvala (2016) and Kris Meeke (2017 after a finish that has become legendary). During the last 10 editions contested, Ogier remains on an impressive series of 6 successes and 2 2^e places, all with 4 different cars: Polo WRC, Fiesta WRC, C3 WRC and Yaris WRC.

In addition to obviously knowing how to navigate the hills around León, Ogier comes with the advantage of not having to open the road. He has won so often with this handicap at the start that he has almost trivialized the feat. Suffice to say that by finding ourselves 5^e, he has a game that should allow him to remain master of the saloon. Knowing that he is only there occasionally, will his opponents primarily aim for the 2^e place ?

Open during Friday, Ott Tänak is aware that he will have difficulty competing, especially as he will undoubtedly still find limits to his Puma. Just behind, Thierry Neuville est un peu l’inconnu. Les Hyundai seront-elles à la hauteur ? Le Belge va-t-il continuer à regarder plus loin et se contenter de gros points ? De son côté, Elfyn Evans a-t-il les épaules pour jouer les hors-la-loi et renverser son équipier ? Kalle Rovanperä n’est-il pas le mieux placé pour remporter le concours et ainsi ouvrir son compteur en 2023 ? Ou alors faut-il compter sur la cavalerie pour « dégainer » Ogier ? Dani Sordo et Esapekka Lappi seront-ils suffisamment bonne gâchette pour profiter de leur ordre de départ encore meilleur que le Français et faire mouche ?

The first ambushes are planned for Friday at 3:00 a.m. in France. Ogier will undoubtedly bide his time to attack the stagecoach in the 29,07 km of El Chocolate on Friday at around 15:48 p.m. in France.