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Saturday WRC 2 in Mexico: Tidemand heads a thriller

Pontus Tidemand led WRC 2 at Rally Guanajuato Mexico on saturday night after a thrilling battle with Eric Camilli.

The pair traded tenths of a second all day on gravel mountain roads near León before the Swede [above] took a slender 2.0sec advantage in his Skoda Fabia R5 in the final few kilometres through the city's streets.

Tidemand led after the first full day of action, but Camilli [below] scored a commanding victory in this morning's opening test in a Ford Fiesta R5 to slash the deficit to just 6.3sec.

Three more stage wins promoted the Frenchman into a narrow lead before Tidemand struck back tonight with three consecutive victories.

"It's good for both us that we have a rally like this, I'm really enjoying it," said Tidemand. "It's been good experience. We'll see what the team strategy is for tomorrow. We may try to push for the win but it's easy to make a mistake. Camilli has done a fantastic job today."

Mexican hero Benito Guerra was third in another Fabia R5, 6min 05.2sec behind Camilli after a troubled day. Brake problems combined with a spin and puncture cost valuable time.

Pedro Heller retired his Fiesta R5 for a second day after crashing into a wall while Hubert Ptaszek did not restart this morning after yesterday's crash damaged the engine of his Fabia R5.

Zdroj: wrc.com