Block takes career best but wonders, ’what if...?’

Ken Block left Rally Mexico with the best result of his WRC career but wondering what he could have achieved with the benefit of a proper testing programme.

The American has been absent from the WRC since last year’s Rally Finland but impressed on his return, driving his Hoonigan Racing Division Fiesta RS to seventh with no pre-event testing.

“It’s funny because I started the rally just trying to enjoy myself on the stages and ended it with a good result,” he said. “It’s just one of those rallies that can take a lot of people out really fast and a conservative pace led to seventh overall.”

On his 20th event in a WRC car, Block came within three stages of taking sixth place but was unable to keep his former team-mate Chris Atkinson behind on the rally’s final day.

“Of course I’d have liked to have kept Chris behind but I didn’t want to push and make a mistake and go off,” said Block. “It’s been great though, I enjoyed it. We had a great battle with Benito [Guerra] and it was fun watching the times of the other drivers."

Block’s 2013 schedule of X Games, Global RallyCross championship and Rally America events means he has no more WRC outings planned – something he feels will limit his WRC potential.

“There is no way to match the top guys unless you have a good programme of rallies and plenty of testing,” he said. “I don’t have enough testing. I can still be inside the top 10, which makes me happy. But sometimes I think what if, what if, what if..?”