Ogier Scores his Third Rally Mexico Win
Sebastien Ogier scored a dominant Rally Mexico win, the Frenchman's third successive triumph on the South American event. Ogier?s win had looked a sure thing from the moment his Volkswagen team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala had reached the end of SS12 with the left-rear wheel missing on his Polo R WRC.
Ogier had led the rally at the end of each day despite insisting beforehand that even a podium finish would be a tough ask due to being first on the road at the beginning. But as Latvala, Citroen's Kris Meeke and Hyundai's Thierry Neuville suffered disastrous events, Ogier completed a perfect rally to end up more than a minute clear of the squabble for second between Mads Ostberg and Andreas Mikkelsen.
The DS 3 and Polo were separated by just five seconds going into the final day, and ultimately it was the superior pace of Ostberg that clinched the position ahead of his fellow Norwegian, who took his third consecutive third-place finish of 2015. The high attritional nature of Rally Mexico handed Elfyn Evans the opportunity to match his career-best WRC result of fourth, M-Sport's Welsh driver doing a superb job and he was relieved of additional pressure from Dani Sordo when the Hyundai i20 WRC picked up a puncture on SS15 and had to settle for a lonely fifth.
Back in the top 10 positions, Martin Prokop survived an off on the penultimate stage to bag an excellent sixth in his privateer Ford, with Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah clinching WRC2 glory and seventh overall after long-time class leader Yuriy Protasov suffered an engine problem on Saturday. Al-Attiyah's WRC2 classmates Nicolas Fuchs and Jari Ketomaa bagged top 10 positions, while Neuville claimed eighth in the second Hyundai and picked up an additional point with the third-best powerstage time.
The Belgian, who had won two of the opening five stages before picking up a puncture and rolling on Friday, was the top returnee as the likes of Latvala, Meeke and Robert Kubica ended up more than 25 minutes further back. Another Rally 2 runner, Ott Tanak, dominated the headlines for much of the event thanks to his crash into a lake on Friday. His car spent more than nine hours under water but returned on Sunday under Rally 2 regulations and, running first on the road, the Estonian was a popular figure as he completed the rally.
Final Results after SS21:
Pos - Driver - Team - Car - Gap
1 Sebastien Ogier Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen 4h19m13.4s
2 Mads Ostberg Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 1m18.8s
3 Andreas Mikkelsen Volkswagen Motorsport II Volkswagen 1m25.1s
4 Elfyn Evans M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 3m40.2s
5 Daniel Sordo Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 5m01.8s
6 Martin Prokop Jipocar Czech National Team Ford 6m36.1s
7 Nasser Al-Attiyah Ford 14m52.7s
8 Thierry Neuville Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 22m43.3s
9 Nicolas Fuchs Ford 22m49.0s
10 Jari Ketomaa Drive Dmack Ford 23m10.2s
8th March, 2015