WRC Mexico 2018 Results: Ogier snatches back WRC 2018 Championship lead, Dani Sordo takes 2nd place in his Hyundai i20!

The third round of this years World Rally Championship, the WRC Mexico 2018 saw Volkswagen’s Sebastian Ogier reclaiming the lead in the 2018 WRC Championship standings with an outright victory! Finishing third was Kris Meeke in his C3 Citroen WRC car , who gave Seb the open run after crashing out on the opening stages of day 3. The 40 second drop meant that the likes of Hyundai’s Dani Sordo who had been hot on the citroens tail in his i20 could leapfrog to second place on day3. However, the WRC Mexico saw another Seb make it back to rallying with the French flag flying high in a Citroen it was multiple world rally champion Sebastien Loeb who was making his first drive of the season with Citroen in their C3 WRC Car.

Naturally, there was some settling in to be done. After blazing into the lead on Friday’s and Saturday’s stages, Loeb made a crucial error in judgement on saturday after stopping mid-stage to replace a puncture. Loeb went on record at the end of the day to say it was the Raid instinct that made him stop and replace the tyre. Something that if he would have otherwise ignored in the short format WRC stages. This semi-retirement allowed the rest of the fast-pack in front, leaving Loeb with fifth place. However, I have a feeling that Loeb will not take this sitting down, and if Friday and Saturday are any indication expect to see Seb take on Seb later this season for the crown that both are now so familiar with

Meanwhile, in the VW Polo WRC Ogier was able to fortify his lead at the start of the run on Sunday when  Citroen’s Meeke tipped his C3 on to its side on SS20 but after a short stop he was helped back on to all four wheels by local fans. He managed to keep the rest of the stage tidy to finish in third place in between an Hyundai sandwich of Andreas Mikkelsen in fourth and Dani Sordo in second place. The defending WRC champion also clinched an impressive second place on the Power Stage SS22 Las Minas 2 to take back the championship lead from Thierry Neuville who led since victory at Rally Sweden.

Meanwhile in the WRC2 Class, it was Pontus Tidemand for Skoda in Mexico as the Swedish driver even beat premier class contender Jari-Matti Latvala in the Toyota. Gus Greensmith and Pedro Heller in their WRC2 Fords.