Citroën’s six-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb won the Rally Mexico by 24 seconds, after making the most of his road position to capture an advantage he was able to defend on the final day.
“It’s a huge satisfaction for us, and I have to say it was a perfect rally,” said the Frenchman. “Of course it’s exciting when you fight to the end, but it’s always easier to be in a position where you can control things.”
The win puts Loeb in the lead of the World Rally Championship for drivers by six points, while Citroën are now just six points behind Ford in the manufacturers’ rankings.
Citroën privateer Petter Solberg was second, having entered the final 4km superspecial stage in Leon just 0.6 seconds behind the Citroën Junior Team’s Sébastien Ogier. The Norwegian had the better of his rival by nearly two seconds, winning the last stage convincingly in a thrilling head-to-head finale.
“I’m delighted but absolutely exhausted,” said Solberg. “It’s a great feeling to be back on the podium!”
“Of course it’s disappointing, but it’s been a good weekend anyway,” said Ogier of his third place. “I think maybe we could have been faster than Petter if we wanted this weekend, but here we are third and it’s a good result.”
'I have to say it was a perfect rally' – Sébastien Loeb
While Citroëns locked out the podium, the rally was a disaster for Ford, who were never on the pace of the French cars. Mikko Hirvonen, who led the championship coming into Mexico, concluded: “It was a weekend where nothing went right. The Citroëns were just better than us here.”
Hirvonen finished fourth, nearly two minutes behind Loeb, thanks only to Ford team tactics on the penultimate stage. The second factory Ford of Jari-Matti Latvala had been ahead of Hirvonen throughout the rally, but Latvala stopped for a half a minute at the end of the stage to let his team leader through.
Loeb’s team-mate Dani Sordo had bowed out on SS10 after hitting an unseen obstacle on the road, but returned to the rally on Sunday under SuperRally rules to finish 15th – but former Formula One champion Kimi Räikkönen had to retire following an accident on SS7, during which he rolled his Citroën C4 WRC five times.
“It was very unlucky – the car just slid wide at the end of the stage in a slippery braking area, so we clipped the side of the road and rolled a few times,” the Finn said. “My biggest disappointment is that we’re not able to continue, as I wanted to have as much time in the car as I could.
“I had a really good feeling earlier and I wanted to push to see what we could do. I’m sure we will come back stronger at our next event, though, and while today was disappointing, I’m really enjoying my rally adventure.”
For more news and videos from the rally, hit the gravel at wrc.com
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