Ogier wins Rally Mexico, takes commanding WRC lead

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Fresh off taking the Volkswagen Polo R WRC’s maiden win in Sweden last month, Sébastien Ogier has rallied to another event victory, this time in Mexico. The French ace enjoyed a perfect weekend, winning Rally Guanajuato Mexico by a commanding three and a half minutes and setting the fastest time through the Power Stage as well.

The 28-point haul gives Ogier a seemingly insurmountable 44-point cushion over nearest title rival Mikko Hirvonen, who finished second. The leading Citroen driver finished close to a minute ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Thierry Neuville.

Dani Sordo ended up fourth in his Citroen DS3 WRC, giving his team vital points to lead the manufacturers’ championship standings by a slim six-point margin over Volkswagen Motorsport. The German outfit had the misfortune of seeing their second entrant Jari-Matti Latvala hobble out of contention after hitting a rock mere metres after the starting line.

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Further back, ex-Proton driver Chris Atkinson managed a distant sixth place driving for Citroen’s B-team while professional hooligan Ken Block enjoyed a career-best result in seventh. Too bad then, that Rally Mexico will be the YouTube phenomenon’s sole WRC outing this season, having committed his schedule to Rally America, Global Rallycross and X Games events throughout the year.

If the remainder of the season goes the same way, 2013 may well be the first time in ten years we crown a WRC champion whose last name is not Loeb. Most likely he will still be called Sébastien though, with the Volkswagen name close in tow.

They’d better enjoy the season then, before Hyundai takes WRC by storm in 2014.

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Hafriz Shah

Preferring to drive cars rather than desks, Hafriz Shah ditched his suit and tie to join the ranks of Malaysia’s motoring hacks. A car’s technical brilliance is completely lost on him, appreciating character-making quirks more. When not writing this ego trip of a bio, he’s usually off driving about aimlessly, preferably in a car with the right combination of three foot pedals and six gears.

 

Comments

  • Sam Loo on Mar 12, 2013 at 4:39 pm

    With all these wins and good name, VW, especially VW Malaysia must do right to all the VW owners in Malaysia. The DSG is a serious problem. Every other car in the VW service centres workshops come in because of DSG issues. In VW Facebook, everybody also complaining about faulty DSG. VW China already have given extended warranty of 10 years just for the DSG alone. When in VW Malaysia going to do this? Enough of sweeping things under the carpet!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 1
  • NISSAN on Mar 12, 2013 at 4:54 pm

    Where is proton neo R3?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 3
    • cow stroller on Mar 12, 2013 at 5:19 pm

      Neo S2000 is racing under WRC 2 group which formerly known as SWRC.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 1
  • Tabrizi on Mar 12, 2013 at 5:21 pm

    He used to be Loeb prodigy & at times even faster than Loeb… Due to similar reason with Schumacher & Baricello (at Ferrari), Ogier make his move to VW, starting a fresh, with his main intention to beat the one who spotted his talent, ‘one on one’…

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • Well, he can’t do it since Loeb is retired (he will still run a few selected rallies).. :)

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • cow stroller on Mar 12, 2013 at 5:23 pm

    Mads Ostberg was securing second place in Mexico rally if his didnt have mechanical problems after Ibarrilla stage, damn! Now Mikko got it.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Jaybond on Mar 13, 2013 at 9:20 am

    It’s quite a surprise to see that the brand new VW Polo WRC is quick right out of the box (given their limited WRC experience, if any?), beating the traditional rally giants namely Citroen and Ford.I wonder whether the result is stil the same had Sebastien Loeb still in WRC.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • rally_fan on Mar 13, 2013 at 4:07 pm

      no surprise there… Ogier had always been super quick in a rally car, and he was already tipped to be a future champion more than 3 years ago. Likewise with VW.. they have thrown obscene amounts of money into their WRC programme and made no secret of planning to win it in their first year (rumour is, thats why Seb Loeb decided its time to retire now). Also, last year in 2012, the entire VW team ran the whole WRC in an unclassified Skoda S2000… putting in place all the planning and logistics needed to do a full WRC.. and also unknown to many.. right after the WRC round had finished and everyone had left.. the entire team stayed back and rolled out the prototype polo WRC and tested the car full distance on the same roads. now thats A TEST programme.

      Also, VW had lots of previous experience rallying in the past although not at WRC level.

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