Rally Mexico 2023

18h

The first gravel round of the World Rally Championship (WRC) does not do any favors to competitors. The first three special stages of the 2023 Rally Mexico, this Friday March 17, pushed several inexperienced drivers to make mistakes, when reliability was not compromised on other cars!

The first victim was the championship leader, Ott Tänak (M-Sport Ford). The Estonian, leading the event after the two opening super-specials on Thursday evening, broke his turbo within the first ten kilometers in the formidable El Chocolate special.

The 2019 world champion continued his journey at a slow pace, hoping that the mid-day passage to the service park would allow the M-Sport mechanics to repair this damage. Of course, with a delay of more than 12 minutes, any chance of appearing on the podium on a regular basis was gone.

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His French teammate Pierre-Louis Loubet hit a rock in the same special and will have to wait until Saturday morning to recover, subject to a heavy time penalty. Finally, Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) rolled down a small ravine following a driving error. Not the best way to celebrate your 30th birthday!

Responsible for the sweep after Ott Tänak's problem, Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) and Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) were both surprised by an unreported bump at the end of the reconnaissance. Following this high-speed collision, the Finn and the Belgian drove without a hybrid system for most of SS5.

The battle for the lead in the 2023 Rally Mexico is between Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) and Sébastien Ogier (Toyota). The Finn only has a short lead over the Frenchman, who is looking this weekend to become the sole record holder for victories in Mexico with a potential 7th success.

“We were 5th on the road this morning and it’s clear that it’s much better than being 1st, declared the eight-time French world champion. The only thing is that there are sometimes stones and you have to be careful of them. But you can't control that, so I just focus on riding cleanly. »

In WRC2, the Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evos of Emil Lindholm and Gus Greensmith surrounded the Ford Fiesta of Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux.

The Rally of Mexico will resume this Friday evening at 21:20 p.m. French time.

Ranking :

 

18h

On his 30th birthday, Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) pulled out all the stops... until he fell off a ravine! The Japanese and his co-driver Aaron Johnston are unhurt but the Yaris hybrid is quite damaged and cannot get back on the road. It's over for today for them.

18h

Esapekka Lappi finished the special with the best time, 6 tenths ahead of Ogier! Lappi has a 1″4 lead over Ogier overall. “Seb has won this rally so many times that I have to be happy with this performance, even if I made a few small mistakes. There is room for improvement for the second pass this afternoon. »

18h

Sébastien Ogier recorded the best time with a 2″6 margin over Evans. “It's much better to ride in 5th place on the track than in 1st position, we knew that! The performance gaps between the cars should even out in the second pass. »

18h

Elfyn Evans does better than Thierry Neuville by 2″2. “The surface is very slippery at the top of the course. »

18h

Thierry Neuville takes the best time with a nice margin of 7″4 over Rovanperä! “It's not a good morning for us. We lost the hybrid at the end of the previous special but there is still a lot of road ahead of us. Martin (Wydaeghe) suffered in the compression of the previous SS. Fortunately we have seats molded to our body shape! »

18h

Rovanperä: “Since Ott is no longer sweeping in front of me, it's more difficult to attack. And then I lost the hybrid system after an impact during the special! »

18h

Oliver Solberg, entered in WRC2, lost around ten seconds following a spin. The best time in the category was set in the previous SS by Emil Lindholm (Skoda) ahead of Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport Ford) by 1 tenth.

17h

At Toyota, the hybrid Yaris are for the moment spared from reliability concerns:

17h

Let's move on to the 5th special of this event, Las Minas 1 (13.61 km). Ott Tänak's hybrid Ford Puma leads the way still at low speed due to a broken turbo.

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