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Rally Mexico: Ogier seals win, Tanak keeps WRC points lead

Sebastien Ogier secured Rally Mexico victory with fastest time on the Las Minas powerstage, though second placed Ott Tanak remains the World Rally Championship leader.

It was Ogier and Citroen's second win of the season after a tense finale against Thierry Neuville's Hyundai on the Monte Carlo Rally, though the reigning WRC champion faced less pressure this time around.

Both of Neuville's team-mates were victory contenders early on, with Andreas Mikkelsen leading until he retired on El Chocolate with suspension failure.

Dani Sordo then retired from a close second place at the end of the following stage, Ortega, with an electrical failure.

Kris Meeke had briefly led on Saturday morning when Ogier picked up a puncture on a cancelled stage and was given a notional time, which demoted Ogier to second.

But Meeke's lead was shortlived, the Toyota driver dropping to fifth place with a puncture of his own and resulting suspension damage.

From then on Ogier was unchallenged for victory, beating Tanak by a final margin of 30.2 seconds.

He also eclipsed Meeke for powerstage victory by only 0.025s, securing the maximum available 30 points on offer.

Tanak had dropped as low as eighth on Friday, struggling with road sweeping as first car on the stages.

But a mixture of rivals dropping out and several stage wins on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning pushed him past Elfyn Evans into second.

Tanak had passed Evans on the loop-opening Alfaro test, and ultimately finished 19.7s ahead of the M-Sport Ford that completed the podium.

The pair had been separated by 7.2s heading to Las Minas but a 10s penalty awarded to Evans for being late to check in effectively secured second for Tanak before the powerstage.

Four-time championship runner-up Neuville had suffered a puncture to his Hyundai i20 WRC first thing on Friday and dropped down to ninth, but took advantage of other drivers retiring to ascend to fourth place by the finish.

He also picked up three bonus points by going third-fastest on the Las Minas powerstage, 0.532s behind Ogier.

Meeke completed the top five despite more issues on Saturday afternoon, when he hit a tyre barrier and broke his gearbox.

He coasted through the Alfaro and Mesa Cuata stages on Sunday morning to save his tyres for a push on the powerstage, which helped him to second fastest time on Las Minas and four bonus points.

Benito Guerra scored his first ever WRC2 win on home soil, the Mexican driver taking sixth overall amid high attrition in the WRC's premier class.

The shock Race of Champions winner had spent much of the rally battling fellow Skoda Fabia R5 driver Marco Bulacia Wilkinson for victory in WRC2, until a puncture cost the latter several minutes.

Jari-Matti Latvala had retired with an alternator failure on Friday and returned under Rally2, and began the powerstage only 3.3s ahead of Bulacia Wilkinson in their fight over seventh place.

Both drivers had trouble on the final stage, a front right puncture afflicting Bulacia Wilkinson and Latvala slowing through the stage with a broken radiator - picked up in an impact at the penultimate corner of the previous stage, Mesa Cuata.

Latvala's Yaris completed the stage with its radiator sealed by glue and its front bumper missing.

He also picked up a 40s penalty as his emergency repairs forced him to check out late from the regroup between Mesa Cuata and Las Minas.

That allowed Bulacia Wilkinson to secure seventh overall despite finishing the powerstage slower than Latvala, who was demoted to eighth by his fourth time penalty of the rally.

Sordo finished ninth on his return from Friday retirement and also picked up two bonus points for fourth on the powerstage, with reigning NACAM Rally champion Ricardo Trivino completing the top 10 in a Fabia R5.

Rally2 returnees Mikkelsen and Esapekka Lappi finished 11th and 14th respectively, the former also scoring the final powerstage bonus point. Lappi had caused the Saturday stage stoppage by spinning and beaching his Citroen.

The other WRC runner to retire completely was Teemu Suninen, who heavily damaged his M-Sport Ford with a Friday crash.

Mikkelsen will not be present on the next event, the Tour of Corisca, with Hyundai electing to enter both Sordo and nine-time champion Sebastien Loeb instead.

Zdroj: autosport.com