WRC – Sébastien Ogier starts well in Mexico

Sébastien Ogier (VW) knew how to attack at the right time in the first passage of the special stages of the first stage of the Rally from Mexico. By beating all his competitors (except Mads Ostberg) by more than ten seconds in the 44km of El Chocolate (SS4), the Frenchman did the essential and reached the service park with almost ten seconds. advance on Thierry Neuville (Hyundai).

Jari-Matti Latvala (VW) completes the provisional podium but the Finn is already at 16 seconds of his rival for the title and is dissatisfied with his driving. Mads Ostberg (Citroën) and Andreas Mikkelsen complete the top five. The first Norwegian lost a handful of seconds following a spin following problems with the gearbox. These problems had already handicapped him in Sweden.

Andreas Mikkelsen is not in a better situation since Elfyn Evans (Ford) is only a tenth behind the last Polo R WRC. But these pilots all took advantage of the abandonment of Kris Meeke (Citroën) who was on the provisional podium before going off the road in El Chocolate.

Ott Tänak (Ford) was also too optimistic in the previous stage (SS3 Los Mexicanos), but the consequences could have been much more dramatic. Robert Kubica (Ford) also had to dismount after setting off with his feet in the day's long special.

Following Ott Tänak's accident, the WRC2 crews did not compete in the first two specials and fixed times were allocated. The second loop will therefore be all the more important for this category.

The videos of the Rally of Mexico can be viewed on this link.