And with no Loeb this time round the challenge is on to take the Frenchman's crown.
Day One.
In qualifying it was Hirvonen who posted the fastest time. Meaning he got first pick of the road order. With Mexico being so dusty Hirvonen decided to go 13th and last out of the WRC starters.
Stage one and two were through the old streets of Mexico. With its tight turns and array of tunnels these two stages are visually exciting and usually full of incident. This year though was a clean run by all. With Ogier just taking the lead. But only just.
1. Ogier 3:19.5
2. Ostberg +0.3
3. Neuville +0.6
4. Hirvonen +1.1
5. Sordo +1.4
Day Two
Stage three started in earnest on Friday morning. Kosciuskzo was the early road sweeper in his mini. Rally Mexico also saw the return of Chris Atkinson. But Atkinson knows that he has picked a tough rally to start on. And it shows, when early on into the stage he hits a rock and now has major repairs to carry out in next service. Another person who had a bad stage three was the unluckiest man in the world Jari Matti Latvala who like Atkinson also hits a rock less then 1km into the stage, which breaks his wishbone and puts him straight out of Rally Mexico. Then in a major curse of three's. Eugene Novikov then loses a whole eight minutes due to an electrical problem.
Stage four and five causes a lot of frustration for Mads Ostberg and Novikov. Ostberg encounters a hole in the car floor, leaving him with visibility problems on the dusty Mexican roads. Then Novikov spends most of his drive constantly reporting to service about the state of his car from earlier. Novikov eventually decides to park the car. Thierry Neuville carries on from his earlier stages and puts in a cracking performance. Rally Mexico also brings back the return of Ken Block, after we last saw him in WRC last August and time has taken nothing away from him. He is putting on a great show stopper for the crowds. Ostberg after all his problems manages to take 6.7 seconds out of Sebastien Ogier's time.
1. Ostberg 27:3.9
2. Ogier +1.4
3. Hirvonen +8.9
Stage six is a 30km trek through some of Mexico's tough terrain. It also throws up an interesting crash with the car of Carlos Garcia Vessman crashing into the protective netting around one of the corners but when he tried to reverse out. He slipped past the netting and rolled into a 10 foot drop. Luckily he and co-driver is all okay. Stage six also sees Ostberg dropping 13 seconds to Ogier who now takes the lead of Mexico.
1. Ogier 1:00:4.2
2. Ostberg +12.9
3. Hirvonen +18.2
Stage eight and nine sees the return of Atkinson after his early morning woes. After he managed to get his battered power steering fixed. Neuville also impresses with a 2nd fastest stage time. Which sees Hirvonen start to play catch up with Neuville's time. Ostberg wins stage nine but Ogier still has the lead of the rally by 18 seconds.
Stage ten and eleven shows off some of the other WRC cars, with Martin Prokop doing well to hold on to 9th place. We also see the charge of Al-Attiyah who is desperately trying to break into the top five. Dani Sordo (Who we haven't seen much of in the race till now) is doing a fine job and is trying to wring everything that he can out of the Citroen but he's still struggling to catch up to Neuville. Ogier takes a little knock but only suffers a bit of cosmetic body damage and even with Ostberg taking four stage wins today. Ogier still leads.
Ogier also wins the short stages of twelve and thirteen.
1. Ogier 1:57:46.7
2. Ostberg +33.0
3. Hirvonen +42.0
4. Neuville + 1:07.1
5. Sordo + 2:40.1
6. Al-Attiyah +3:24.5
7. Block +4:46.5
8. Guerra +6:03.4
9. Prokop +6:25.4
10. Atkinson +7:15.1
Day Three.
Stage fourteen starts of interestingly for Atkinson who suffers from the same problem as Ostberg when he develops a hole in his car floor causing him all sorts of vision problems. Al-Attiyah has a spin but manages to regain his composure and doesn't lose much time. Same can't be said for Sordo who suffers a slow puncture and has to drive carefully till he can change it. Hirvonen finally manages to take some time out of Neuville, a good 17 seconds or so. Ostberg woes strike after his clutch starts to fail. Ogier starts to absorb the details of Ostberg's problem and extends his lead.
After a break between stages, Ostberg's car can't be fixed and is out of Rally Mexico for the time being. This is the 3rd rally for Mads where he has suffered with technical problems which have hampered his drives.
Hirvonen suffers a slow puncture in stage eighteen just a 1km into the stage. Ogier at this point just needs to cruise to Victory.
1. Ogier 3:38:42.2
2. Hirvonen +2:52.4
3. Neuville +2:59.9
4. Sordo +4:45.2
5. Al-Attiyah +5:33.9
Day Four.
Under rally rules Ostberg can restart the rally but is only really in contention for points in the power stage.
Stage twenty one is the longest stage of the whole rally at 54km and it can be a car breaker, which is what happened to the mini of Kosciuszko which gave up the ghost 40km into the stage. Atkinson though fairs a bit better, whilst trying to take time off Block. Block had to respond to Atkinson's advances but ended up 36 seconds slower the Aussie. Neuville and Hirvonen both tried to shed weight from the car in a bid to gain advantage over each other. Neuville though almost didn't make it to the end of the race when he fell into a ditch. Luckily he managed to get the car out but he lost 21 seconds in the process. So Hirvonen got his get out jail free card. Hirvonen took the stage win.
1. Ogier 4:14:17.8
2. Hirvonen +3:15.2
3. Neuville +3:44.4
Between the stages Ogier had a small problem with the sensor for the throttle but he managed to fix it before the last two stages.
Stage twenty two was the power stage. Ogier left his rivals for dust taking the full three points on offer. Ostberg managed to get some consolation out of rally Mexico and took home two points. Unlucky Latvala managed 3rd and a single point.
Stage twenty three saw the cars go head to head on track. But Ogier with sixteen stage wins is victorious and wins rally Mexico.
Rally Mexico results.
1. Ogier 4:30:27.0
2. Hirvonen +3:28.9
3. Neuville +4:23.8
4. Sordo +6:06.7
5. Al-Attiyah +8:34.0
6. Atkinson +11:28.0
7. Block +11:48.3
8. Guerra +12:49.8
9. Prokop +14:29.0
10. Novikov +17:15.3
Drivers standings.
1. Ogier 74pts
2. Loeb 43pts
3. Hirvonen 30pts
4. Sordo 27pts
5. Ostberg 26pts
Manufacturers standings.
1. Citroen Total Abu Dhabi 87pts
2. VW 81pts
3. Qatar M-sport 37pts
4. Qatar 35pts
5. Abu Dhabi Citroen Total 23pts.
So is Ogier turning into the Loeb of Rally? Two wins out of three puts him in good stead for Portugal in a months time. But can anyone stop him?
With technical issues hampering everyone can we see a nationality other then the French run away with it?
We will find out more in a month's time in Portugal.
Until then you can follow me on Twitter @squiffany
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