Ogier fastest in Mexico shakedown

Sebastien Ogier has gone fastest in shakedown for Rally Guanajuato Mexico, round two of the World Rally Championship.

The factory Citroen driver clocked a fastest time of 2m51.7s over the 5.13-kilometre San Juan de Otates stage held in hot and dry conditions.

Petter Solberg was second fastest in a similar Citroen DS3 WRC, two-tenths of a second slower than Ogier, despite being delayed by a steering problem. Sebastien Loeb, the winner in Mexico on the last four occasions, was third quickest in another DS3.

“We are happy for the moment,” said Citroen team manager Sven Smeets. “We tested in Spain before this rally but the conditions here are obviously very specific with the altitude and the general feeling of the stages.”

Solberg’s team boss Ken Rees said it was too early to say what had caused the steering problem but reported a frontal impact.

Despite his drivers trailing the trio of Citroen runners, Ford team chief Malcolm Wilson said he was satisfied with how his cars had performed in shakedown.

“Compared to where we were in Mexico last year this is very promising,” said Wilson. “We suffered a lot of damage in shakedown here last year and there’s no question the drivers weren’t pushing through the stage - and where the watersplash used to be.”

Dutch driver Dennis Kuipers hit trouble when he damaged the radiator on his Ford Fiesta RS WRC. “There was a dip in the road and we went over it full throttle in sixth gear,” said his co-driver Frederic Miclotte.

Shakedown was scheduled to run from 08:00hrs until 12:00hrs local time but was delayed by 57 minutes while the event organisers instructed groups of spectators standing at two corners to move to safe areas.

"There were too many spectators on two corners and Jacek Bartos [the FIA safety delegate] said they must move positions before the test could continue,” explained rally director Patrick Suberville. “Naturally we agreed with this decision and obviously helped to get the spectators to stand in a safe area. We normally get a lot of spectators for the shakedown but normally at the start and finish of this stage. This time they were in other areas."