Rally Mexico: Ogier plots measured attack for Rally Mexico

Sebastien Ogier says surviving the opening day at Rally Mexico with his unfavourable road position before attacking for victory will be key as the M-Sport Ford driver targets a fourth win in the Central American event.

The four-time defending WRC champion will start Rally Mexico second on the road, as dictated by championship standings behind leader Jari-Matti Latvala for Toyota Gazoo Racing, effectively ruled out his chances of victory in Mexico last year when starting first with the WRC rules enforcing championship road position for the first two days of action.

With Ogier second on the road and only for day one, he is confident of challenging for his second WRC win in the opening three rounds but won’t attack until the final two days of action.

“For the first time in a number of years we won’t be opening the road but it will still be a big challenge,” Ogier said. “We’ll be the second car into the stages so we’ll still have to contend with quite a lot of road cleaning. We’ll need to try to stay as close as we can over the opening day and then see what’s achievable when the conditions become more consistent.

“We’ve had a good start to the season, but now we’re going to experience something totally different. This is where we’ll get a feeling for these new cars on gravel and where I’ll get to experience the Fiesta’s performance on this kind of surface. We had a really useful test last week with a lot of kilometres, but there really is no substitute for competition.

“It’s going to be an interesting rally and I hope we can continue our good performance and continue to progress.

Rally Mexico leaderboard after SS1 (Top 15):

1. Juho Hanninen FIN Toyota Yaris Gazoo Racing WRC 3m 37.2s M
2. Ott Tanak EST M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC +1.6s M
3. Kris Meeke GBR Citroen C3 Abu Dhabi WRC +1.6s M

4. Thierry Neuville BEL Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +2.6s M
5. Hayden Paddon NZL Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +3.2s M
6. Sebastien Ogier FRA M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC +4.0s M
7. Dani Sordo ESP Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +6.0s M
8. Jari-Matti Latvala FIN Toyota Yaris Gazoo Racing WRC +6.2s M
9. Pontus Tidemand SWE Skoda Motorsport Fabia R5 +6.7s WRC2
10. Lorenzo Bertelli ITA FWRT s.r.l Ford Fiesta RS WRC +10.3s RC1
11. Stephane Lefebvre FRA Citroen C3 Abu Dhabi WRC +19.4s RC1
12. Benito Guerra Jr MEX Skoda Motorsport Fabia R5 +19.4s WRC2
13. Eric Camilli FRA M-Sport Ford Fiesta R5 +20.3s WRC2
14. Hubert Ptaszek POL Skoda Motorsport Fabia R5 +22.0s WRC2
15. Valeriy Gorban UKR Eurolmap WRT Mini Cooper WRC +27.3s RC1

Selected others
24. Elfyn Evans GBR DMACK M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC +5m 02.5s M

WRC2 results:

1. Pontus Tidemand SWE Skoda Motorsport Fabia R5 3m 43.9s WRC2
2. Eric Camilli FRA M-Sport Ford Fiesta R5 +12.7s WRC2
Read more at http://www.crash.net/wrc/results/241718/1/rally-mexico-day-1-leaderboard-after-ss1-top-15.html#tfb0PyetbRVXLv78.99