SS22: WRC stars hit trouble in Mexico

The Rally Guanajuato Mexico leaderboard has been turned on its head with several drivers hitting trouble on the longest stage in the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia so far this season.

Jari-Matti Latvala rolled his Ford Fiesta RS WRC and then stopped to change a puncture, losing more than seven minutes in the process. Broken front suspension forced Chris Atkinson to retire his Monster World Rally Team Fiesta. Team-mate Ken Block managed to complete the test, albeit with a significant loss of time, while Evgeny Novikov went off the road and retired his M-Sport Fiesta.

Latvala’s woe means his fellow Ford driver Petter Solberg moves into third place in the overall standings with Mads Ostberg climbing to fourth, despite taking more than two minutes than stage winner Mikko Hirvonen to complete the run after delays.

Sebastien Loeb was 0.7s slower than Hirvonen to maintain his comfortable advantage in the overall classification. Solberg was third fastest with Nasser Al-Attiyah impressing with the fourth quickest time in his Qatar World Rally Team Citroen.