March 7, 2015 – Sebastien Ogier was the shock leader of Rally Mexico on Friday evening after an action-packed day sidelines half of the drivers from the headline world rally car category.
He overcame the handicap of opening the roads with an inspired soft compound tyre choice for his Volkswagen Polo R this morning to claim the advantage. He protected his lead in the afternoon to end 13.5sec ahead of team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala. He smashed his rivals in the 44km El Chocolate stage and held off Thierry Neuville until the salvation of more equal conditions during the afternoon’s repeated tests.
Neuville’s challenge ended in the second pass through El Chocolate when he punctured and then rolled after hitting a bank, damaging his Hyundai i20’s radiator.
An early spin caused by gear selection issues left Mads Østberg in ninth. But he charged up the order in Citroen’s DS3 and was 16.0sec behind Latvala in third.
Robert Kubica, Kris Meeke and Ott Tanak were involved in separate accidents which forced all three of them to retire from the action.
