Photo Credit: Hyundai Motorsport Round 3 of the 2016 FIA World Rally Championship saw the teams and the drivers head to the Americas, for Rally Guanajuato Mexico. Volkswagen's Sebastien Ogier was one of the favourites to win since he was yet to drop a point in 2016 and won the Mexican adventure in 2013, 14 and 15. However, on his 100th WRC start he was sweeping the gravel for the ensuing pack for the first two days, meaning he could only manage second place despite not putting a foot wrong. It was Ogier's team mate Jari-Matti Latvala who was there to steal top honours from the Frenchman, netting his 16th WRC win and first in Mexico. Latvala started a lowly 8th in the starting order due to having no points in the championship, and handsomely profited from this advantage, dominating both Friday and Saturday's action. In fact it was only until Sunday on the monster 80km Guanajuato stage that Ogier took his first stage win of the weekend. It was a great, mature drive from Latvala though, which will give him a confidence boost heading to Argentina and for the rest of the season. Mads Ostberg continued his fine start to the season despite never troubling the front runners with another podium finish in Mexico. The M-Sport pilot stayed out of trouble and netted third after Dani Sordo incurred a penalty after the event. Sordo finished the rally third, which at the time meant Hyundai had taken three podium finishes in three rallies with each driver Neuville, Paddon and Sordo grabbing one. However, a mix up in communications saw Sordo use 29 tyres throughout the weekend instead of 28 which is illegal, and it gave him a 2 minute penalty, demoting the Spaniard to fourth. Devastatingly with the penalty in place Sordo only finished 1.5 seconds behind Ostberg in third! Photo Credit: Volkswagen Motorsport Fifth place went to the ever impressive Hayden Paddon, who is fast establishing himself as one of the WRC's major players.The Kiwi struggled at times though with incorrect tyre choices and small collisions which damaged his suspension along the way.
DMACK's Ott Tanak finished a trouble free sixth, low key after the drama of last year where his Fiesta RS WRC ended up in a lake. This finish means the Estonian has finished in the points in every rally so far this season. Martin Prokop took seventh on his return to the WRC, while Lorenzo Bertelli netted his best WRC finish with eight place. Runaway WRC winner Teemu Suninen took ninth in his Skoda Fabia R5 with Valeriy Gorban in tenth with his MINI. However, missing from the top 10 were Hyundai's Thierry Neuville and Volkswagen's Andreas Mikkelsen. Neuville got the event off to a great start, winning the opening street stage in Guanajuato. However on Friday's first stage, El Chocolate, the Belgian slid wide on a fast right hander that tightened, collected a pole with the front left of his i20 and ruined his suspension. Restarting under Rally 2, he went off again on Saturday, clipping a bank and harshly plummeting off the road. He and Nicolas Gilsoul were taken to hospital for checks but were ok. Neuville needs to buck this trend going to Argentina, as he lies well behind his team mates in the championship table. Andreas Mikkelsen meanwhile seems to be enduring a sticky patch of form. An uncharacteristic ragged performance in Sweden after a strong performance in Monte-Carlo was surprising. And now in Mexico after complaining his car was handling "like a snake", he crashed out on Saturday after pushing hard to pass Sordo for third place. A solid trouble free run will be the aim in Argentina. Ogier now has a 35 point lead over Ostberg in the championship, with Latvala now on the page in sixth with 27 points. Rally Argentina will be contested between 22-24 April. Don't miss it!
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January 2018
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