Ogier's Sixth Rally Mexico Win

Sebastien Ogier has joined French compatriot Sebastien Loeb as the only six-time winners of Rally Mexico and thus elevating him to the top of the 2020 championship table, eight points clear of Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans. The rally was shortened by three stages Sunday morning stages in order to give teams and support crews time to beat the advancing travel embargo in the USA and Europe as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
In what transpired to be the final loop of the rally, Ogier maintained sufficient speed on each of the six special stages to take the win by a margin of 27.8 seconds from the Hyundai i20 WRC of 2019 world champion Ott Tanak, followed by Teemu Suninen?s M-Sport Ford Fiesta. Behind the three podium finishers, were the Toyotas of Britain's Elfyn Evans and rising star Kalle Rovanpera in fourth and fifth respectively, after battling through today's stages from their less than favorable road positions.
British youngster Gus Greensmith was the sixth WRC car home at the end of only his fifth outing in the premier class in another M-Sport Fiesta. Final classified finisher in the RC1 class was Thierry Neuville, who restarted after an electrical failure late on Friday and his more favorable road position for the remainder of his rally meant the Belgian duly won five of the remaining eight stages, ceding just three fastest times to Hyundai team-mate Tanak.
The next WRC round, Rally Argentina, is postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, so the next scheduled event is Rally Portugal on 21-24 May, unless the global Covid-19 situation continues to affect the WRC calendar.

Top Ten Finishers

1 RC1 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota 2h47m47.6s
2 RC1 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Hyundai 27.8s
3 RC1 Teemu Suninen, J.Lehtinen M-Sport Ford WRT Ford 37.9s
4 RC1 Elfyn Evans, S.Martin Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota 1m13.4s
5 RC1 Kalle Rovanpera, J.Halttunen Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota 2m20.5s
6 WRC2 Pontus Tidemand, P.Barth Toksport WRT Skoda 10m29.3s
7 WRC2 Nikolay Gryazin, Y.Fedorov Hyundai Motorsport N Hyundai 12m27.0s
8 WRC3 Marco Bulacia Wilkinson, G.Bernacchini Marco Bulacia Wilkinson Citroen 13m37.5s
9 RC1 Gus Greensmith, E.Edmondson M-Sport Ford WRT Ford 13m56.5s
10 WRC2 Ole-Christian Veiby, J.Andersson Hyundai Motorsport N Hyundai 15m32.2s

Drivers Championship
1. Sebastien Ogier 62
2. Elfyn Evans 54
3. Thierry Neuville 32
4. Kalle Rovenpera 40
5. Ott Tanak 38
6. Teemu Sunenin 26
7. Esapekka Lappi 24
8=. Pontus Tidemand 8
8=. Sebastien Loeb 8
8=. Takamoto Katsuta 8




15th March, 2020