Nobre to head the field on day two in Mexico

Paulo Nobre and co-driver Edu Paula will run first on the road on day two of Rally Guanajuato Mexico in their WRC Team MINI Portugal John Cooper Works WRC.

The Brazilians are returning to the event under Rally 2 restart regulations following their exit on stage five on Friday, when they rolled.

They will be followed by the Citroen Junior World Rally Team pairing of Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul, who are also continuing under Rally 2 rules after they hit trouble and retired from third place on stage six yesterday.

Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino run third for the Monster World Rally Team with Volkswagen Motorsport duo Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia next to go.

Rally leaders Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena are 14th on the road after the leading positions were reversed in accordance with the new running order regulations for 2012. In theory, the Citroen pair should be able to take advantage of a ‘cleaned’ road surface rather than having to sweep a line through the loose surface gravel, which the cars running at the head of the field will have to do.

However, the prospect of heavy rain falling over parts of the route could mean running further down the order will be less advantageous in the event of the stage surface deteriorating.