Ogier heads Solberg in fight for second

With Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb carrying a lead of almost one minute into today’s final day of Rally Mexico, all eyes were on the thrilling battle for second starring two more Citroen C4 WRC drivers, Petter Solberg and Sebastien Ogier.

And on Sunday’s opener it was Ogier who was fastest - moving ahead of Solberg in the overall standings by a slender margin of 1.4 seconds.

Clear skies and sunshine greeted competitors as they departed the rally base in Leon this morning for the short drive north to the opening Guanajuatito stage. Measuring 29.13 kilometres, the stage accounted for more than half of Sunday’s competitive distance.

Running behind Loeb though the slippery gravel road, Solberg lost his overnight second position with a stage time 4.1sec slower than Ogier’s. "It was very loose and I chose a slightly harder set of springs this morning - hopefully things will be better on the next stage," he said. "It was slippery and I tried to be neat but I made a small mistake in the last corner. Okay, there are still 17 [gravel] kilometres to go. Third place would be important for us but I haven’t given up on second just yet!"

Second place for Ogier would match his previous best in a WRC rally - which he took in the Acropolis Rally last year. "I think it will be a fight until the end but I don’t want to take too many risks," said the Frenchman. "Moving up to second is good but it’s not finished."

Acting as the stage opener today, Loeb was first to arrive at the finish control in a time which ended up being 18 seconds slower than Ogier’s. "It was okay," he said. "I didn’t push, I just took it easy. For sure I lose some time but it’s okay, no problem." With a little over 21km still to go, the defending champion holds a 40.2 second lead.

BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team driver Jari-Matti Latvala set the third fastest time, and felt he had finally discovered a set-up which worked on the Mexican roads. "The time is okay because we are not in the competition any more, we are carrying two spares and I could have gone harder if I needed," he said. "I have an idea of where we went wrong with the set-up now. On Friday we started off far too soft and even today we’ve made some changes which have improved things."

However there was little sign of optimism from Ford team-leader Mikko Hirvonen, who arrived at the stop control with door and sill damage to the co-driver’s side of his Focus RS WRC. "Five or six kilometres before the finish we slid wide and hit a big brick wall," he explained. "Luckily it hit us in right place; not the wheels. Everything seems to have gone wrong this weekend..."

After retiring on Saturday’s competition, Dani Sordo, Ken Block and Matthew Wilson each returned to the event today in a bid to collect championship points.