Loeb leads after opening morning in Mexico

The battle for victory on Rally Guanajuato Mexico is tightly poised following the opening loop of stages this morning.

Sebastien Loeb, the winner in Mexico on the last four occasions, heads Citroen team-mate Sebastien Ogier after moving ahead with a faster time than his fellow Frenchman managed on the short Leon Street Stage held just prior to midday service.

Loeb, who was also fastest on stage four in his Citroen DS3 WRC, said: “It’s been a good morning and I’ve been pushing as much as I could. I have a good feeling with the car and with the tyre but we will see if there are [road position] tactics this afternoon.”

Sebastien Ogier, who made his world championship debut in Mexico in 2008, was fastest on stages two and three in his DS3 and is currently 0.7s behind Loeb. “It’s been a good morning with no problems,” said Ogier. “Okay we have no power [because of the altitude] but we expected this and it is the same for everybody. We had a good road position and we tried to take the benefit.”

Petter Solberg, who started Friday’s first stage with a lead of 0.2s following his victory on the Guanajuato Steet Stage on Thursday night, is 18.4s adrift of second-placed Ogier in his Petter Solberg World Rally Team DS3.

Mikko Hirvonen is the leading Ford Fiesta RS WRC driver in fourth overall having spent the morning cleaning the loose surface gravel and struggling with a lack of grip, braking performance and traction as a result.

“I’m quite happy with how it went,” said Hirvonen. “My driving on the first two stages was not perfect but then we don’t have much experience of the car in rally conditions. The set-up was a little too soft but otherwise there was no problem. We’ve lost a lot less time than we did in this situation last year.”

There was frustration for Fiesta drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Mads Ostberg, who both picked up punctures and dropped out of contention. Ostberg lost more than four minutes with a deflation on stage three before Latvala suffered a puncture of his own on stage four, dropping out of fourth place to ninth in the process.

“I didn’t feel that we hit anything but at the start of the stage it was quite sandy with big ruts so we probably pushed the tyre off the rim on one of those ruts,” said Latvala’s co-driver Miikka Anttila. “Jari-Matti said with 13 kilometres to go that we had a puncture and because we are running in three-minute intervals we had time to change.”

Matthew Wilson is a strong fifth in his M-Sport Stobart Fiesta, one place ahead of new team-mate Evgeny Novikov, who has spent the morning learning his Fiesta, which he is driving in competition for the first time. “I’m starting to get used to the car now and I’m having a lot of fun,” said the Russian.

Henning Solberg is seventh overall with Dennis Kuipers eighth in another Fiesta: “The grip changes a lot and it’s very tricky but I have had a good morning and I’m learning a lot,” said Dutchman Kuipers, who is driving for the FERM Power Tools World Rally Team.

Behind Latvala, Super 2000 World Rally Championship leader Nasser Al-Attiyah completes the top 10 in his Ford Fiesta S2000. The Qatari heads fellow Fiesta drivers Ott Tanak and Martin Prokop.

Juho Hanninen, one of the pre-season SWRC title favourites, hit trouble on stage two when he spun into a wall. Having broken his Skoda Fabia’s reverse gear in the process, Hanninen and co-driver Mikko Markkula had to get out and push the car so it was pointing in the right direction again.

Argentine Federico Villagra was also in trouble on stage two when he clipped a rock and broke a wheel of his Munchi’s Fiesta RS WRC after approximately 10 kilometres.

Ken Block has enjoyed a trouble-free morning after restarting under SupeRally regulations with a 10-minute time penalty by failing to start Thursday night’s Guanajuato Street Stage when his Monster World Rally Team Fiesta suffered an electrical failure.