Sébastien Ogier: “Something totally different”

After the asphalt, snow and ice of Monte-Carlo and the snow/ice mixture of Rally of Sweden, gravel will make its comeback this weekend in the World Rally Championship with the Rally of Mexico.

On the menu for the competitors, altitude, a specific parameter of the event, but also the first laps of the wheel in competition of the news WRC 2017 on earth. An essential round therefore for drivers on the predominant surface in WRC.

“We are going to experience something totally different, analysis Sébastien Ogier. This is where we will get the first sensations with these new cars on dirt and where I will get the clues about the performance of the Fiesta on this type of surface.

We had some really important testing last week with a lot of kilometers, but there's really no substitute for competition. »

Du côté de la compétition justement, le vainqueur du Rallye Monte-Carlo puis troisième sur la neige suédoise, pointe au deuxième rang au classement Pilotes derrière le Finlandais Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota). Une position qui offrira un scénario quelque peu inhabituel pour le Français de M-Sport in Mexico this weekend, as the driver of the No. 1 Ford Fiesta will not open the road to the land across the Atlantic.

If Jari-Matti Latvala should be the most handicapped by the sweeping phenomenon, Ogier nevertheless believes that his first day risks being decisive for the rest of the event. “We will not open the road, but it will remain a big challenge, underlines Ogier.

We are going to be the second car in the stages, which means we will still have to struggle with a lot of sweeping. We will have to try to stay as close to the race lead as possible on the first day and then see what is achievable when the conditions become more consistent. »