Rally Guanajuato Mexico / Rally review
25/42
But he wasn’t the only casualty of the
day. Chris Atkinson could continue the
whole day but he was hampered by all
kinds of woes.
Mikko Hirvonen was doing all right and
was in third until he lost quite some
time on the long El Chocolate stage.
He didn’t speak to stage- end reporters
and just moved on. This is something
very unlike the Finn. On the next stage
the cause of his time loss turned out to
be a faulty alternator. And deprived of
electricity the engine stopped. The unhappy Hirvonen just had to wait until his
mechanics arrived and consequently
had to retire for the day.
The same applies to Kris Meeke. Although he started carefully he was in
fourth when he hit a stone and broke
his suspension. He too had to retire for
the day.
The next one on the retirement list was
Robert Kubica. He banged into a concrete bollard on the first running of the
Super Special and his Fiesta rolled. After rescue marshals had put the car on
its wheels again he proceeded to the
finish. He wanted to continue on the
next passing of the super special but
the marshals did not allow that on safety grounds. (His windscreen was completely broken and also the front of his
car was in a strange shape).
lowed by Mads Østberg who is now
some 26 seconds behind. Latvala is in
third. Elfyn Evans is the sensation of
the day. He defies the expression that
Mexico is no land for novices. But he
shows that, if you drive with your head,
rather than with your heart you can
come far. Neuville in fifth is doing well
too. Local hero Benito Guerra, eager to
show his benefactors that he is worth
their investment, is in seventh and on
his way to reach his goal of being in the
top five.
Saturday’s Viking fix
The Saturday proceedings did not start
well for runner up Mads Østberg. On
the first stage of the day he hit a bank
and broke part of his rear suspension.
Both driver and co-driver started to
work frantically on the wheel and they
seemed to succeed. At the stage end
he told the reporters it was going to be
OK. “It’s a Viking fix!” he smiled. On the
following road section however he had
to redo his Viking fix and then at the
start of Otates one of the over 50km
stages of the rally he had to throw the
towel.
That is a problem less for Ogier. He did
not slow down however and ended the
day with an advantage of just more than
a minute over teammate Latvala. Neuville was three minutes further back,
Meanwhile at the top
but still comfortably in third. A position
But let’s not forget the leaderboard. he wanted to nurture until the finish. So
Number one was Sebastien Ogier, fol- the battle for the top was over.
Top to bottom:
- Hirvonen started well but was stopped by a faulty alternator
- Kubica learning WRC the hard way
- Ostberg the “Viking Mechanic”