Rally Mexico stage 17 classification top 15 - Ogier in control as Neuville closes in on Evans, Loubet in the wars 19.03.2023: WRC RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP Rally Guanajuato Mexico SS17 Derramadero 2 Saturday, March 18th 2023 All live and Videopass HERE Weather: Hot and sunny, 30°C Road conditions: Dry and dusty A repeat run through Derramadero brought the day’s longer

WRC RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
Rally Guanajuato Mexico
SS17 Derramadero 2
Saturday, March 18th 2023
All live and Videopass HERE


Weather:    Hot and sunny, 30°C
Road conditions:    Dry and dusty   

A repeat run through Derramadero brought the day’s longer stages to a close. Pierre-Louis Loubet clouted the rear of his Puma on the approach to a fast left-hander and damaged the suspension. The crew worked on the rear of the car to try and continue.


Kalle Rovanperä survived a spin in a narrow part of the stage and Thierry Neuville continued to eat into Elfyn Evans’s hold on second with the fastest time. The gap dropped to 5.9 seconds. Sébastien Ogier leads by 36.3 seconds.



Gus Greensmith maintained sixth overall and took a WRC2 lead of 19.3 seconds to SS18. Oliver Solberg claimed the fastest WRC2 time and moved up to fourth when Kajetan Kajetanowicz collected a puncture and lost over 50 seconds.




Car 8.     TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
“At least outside it looks fun. Not like the inside!”



Car 69.    ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
Brief stop in the stage. “I just had a spin in a really narrow place. I was stuck between the barriers and
had to reverse many times, After that I tried to have a normal pace.



Car 11.   NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“I tried since the first stage of the loop. Obviously something is not working 100%. I struggled to make
big gaps. We need to continue working on the car. We made a lot of changes at service. Let’s see.



Car 33.   EVANS/MARTIN
“It was an okay run from my side. Not a huge amount left. It’s like that. He’s been nibbling away. We
just have to keep going.”



Car 7.      LOUBET/GILSOUL
Carried too much speed into a fast left-hander, the Puma ran sideways and Loubet swiped the banking
and damaged the rear of the car. The crew began working on the rear suspensión in a frantic bid to
continue. They then drove away from the stage via a road section.



Car 6.      SORDO/CARRERA
“It was quite okay. I enjoy it with the car and I have a little more grip here than the stage before.”



Car 9.     SERDERIDIS/MICLOTTE
“Conditions are a little bit better than the previous stage, Mosquito. A very nice stage, a lot of fun.”



Car 20.     GREENSMITH/ANDERSSON
“I don’t know what’s changed this afternoon but it’s so difficult to drive the car. It doesn’t feel like a good
stage. Neither of them have.”



Car 21.      SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
Fastest of the WRC2 runners and he moved up to fourth in the category.



Car 22.    FOURMAUX/CORIA
“It was a safe tyre choice. Unfortunately in that one I was not able to have a clean stage and made a
few mistakes. I decided to push a bit less but the time is still correct, so it’s okay.”



Car 24.     LINDHOLM/HÄMÄLÄINEN
“Interesting, the last part was quite nice. I cannot say the same of the beginning. My driving, I am not
finding a rhythm and I am not trusting the pace notes. I guess we need to be happy to be within a few
seconds of the guys.”



Car 25.      KAJETANOWICZ/SZCZEPANIAK
Lost fourth place in WRC2 to Oliver Solberg after collecting a puncture. “Six kilometres before the finish.
This is rally. This is Rally of México. This happens.”



- Neil Perkins -





OVERALL STANDINGS top 15



1     #17     FRA S. OGIER     FRA V. LANDAIS     GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID     M     Rally1     2:30:51.1        


2     #33     GBR E. EVANS     GBR S. MARTIN     GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID     M     Rally1     2:31:27.4     +36.3     +36.3


3     #11     BEL T. NEUVILLE     BEL M. WYDAEGHE     i20 N Rally1 HYBRID     M     Rally1     2:31:33.3     +5.9     +42.2


4     #69     FIN K. ROVANPERÄ     FIN J. HALTTUNEN     GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID     M     Rally1     2:32:26.7     +53.4     +1:35.6


5     #6     ESP D. SORDO     ESP C. CARRERA     i20 N Rally1 HYBRID     M     Rally1     2:33:13.4     +46.7     +2:22.3


6     #20     GBR G. GREENSMITH     SWE J. ANDERSSON     Fabia RS     WRC2 (D/C)     Rally2     2:41:19.5     +8:06.1     +10:28.4


7     #22     FRA A. FOURMAUX     FRA A. CORIA     Fiesta MkII     WRC2 (D/C)     Rally2     2:41:38.8     +19.3     +10:47.7


8     #24     FIN E. LINDHOLM     FIN R. HÄMÄLÄINEN     Fabia Evo     WRC2 (T/D/C)     Rally2     2:41:58.8     +20.0     +11:07.7


9     #21     SWE O. SOLBERG     GBR E. EDMONDSON     Fabia RS     WRC2 (D/C)     Rally2     2:42:43.0     +44.2     +11:51.9


10     #25     POL K. KAJETANOWICZ     POL M. SZCZEPANIAK     Fabia Evo     WRC2 (DC/CC)     Rally2     2:43:30.4     +47.4     +12:39.3


11     #8     EST O. TÄNAK     EST M. JÄRVEOJA     Puma Rally1 HYBRID     M     Rally1     2:45:39.9     +2:09.5     +14:48.8


12     #26     CZE M. PROKOP     CZE M. ERNST     Fiesta MkII     WRC2 (DC/CC)     Rally2     2:45:53.1     +13.2     +15:02.0


13     #29     CHL J. MARTINEZ     ARG A. ALVAREZ     Fabia     WRC2 (DC/CC)     Rally2     2:55:27.0     +9:33.9     +24:35.9


14     #18     JPN T. KATSUTA     IRL A. JOHNSTON     GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID         Rally1     3:33:29.7     +38:02.7     +1:02:38.6


15     #9     GRC J. SERDERIDIS     BEL F. MICLOTTE     Puma Rally1 HYBRID         Rally1     4:00:10.0     +26:40.3     +1:29:18.9



./.. times remain provisional



WRC  photo TGR