2023 Rally México – Friday afternoon

Esapekka Lappi and Sébastien Ogier have been the stand-out stars of the primary leg of Rally Guanajuato México on a day the place three of the main ten Rally1 crews hit hassle on the opening El Chocolate particular stage. 

Lappi and fellow Finn Janne Ferm gained 4 of the six gravel exams to Ogier’s and Vincent Landais’s two and that spectacular efficiency by the Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Crew crew earned them a slender lead of 5.3 seconds to take into the night time halt in León.

Lappi stated: “I hoped that I may battle on the prime however to be main and to be combating on a regular basis in opposition to Seb was not in my thoughts to be sincere, I used to be assured that our tempo can be good. In all probability among the finest days of my profession. We did plenty of work between Monte-Carlo and Sweden and we’ve been looking for the nice set-up and that helps.”

Ogier added: “It has been day, not a lot extra we may do besides taking dangers and that isn’t the strategy I wish to tackle this rally. I’m happy. Effectively carried out to him (Lappi) for as we speak. We nonetheless have some work to do to see if we are able to discover some extra tempo for tomorrow.”

World Championship chief Ott Tänak began the morning first on the street however suffered turbo points halfway by way of the opening stage. The Estonian by no means recovered from that early time loss and accidents for each Pierre Louis Loubet and Jourdain Serderidis on the identical El Chocolate stage gave the M-Sport Ford World Rally Crew a dismal begin to their Méxican gravel problem.

Behind Lappi and Ogier, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT’s Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin completed the day in a stable third total, an early problem from Dani Sordo fading after the Spaniard collected a rear puncture and needed to take care of the resultant mud points contained in the Hyundai. Sordo and co-driver Candido Carrera slipped again to sixth place. 

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe completed the day simply 9.7 seconds behind Evans in fourth and had constructed up a helpful cushion over the fifth-placed defending World Champion Kalle Rovanperä and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen. The Finn, like Tänak, struggled with an unfavourable street beginning place however must be higher positioned to assault on Saturday.

Japan’s Takamoto Katsuta misplaced the rear of his Toyota on the primary run by way of Las Minas, crashed off the observe and was not in a position to proceed. 

Gus Greensmith made a profitable return to the WRC2 self-discipline and the Briton loved a powerful day in his Škoda Fabia to carry a wonderful seventh place within the total rankings and a class lead of 8.5 seconds over his former M-Sport Ford team-mate Adrien Fourmaux, driving a Fiesta MkII. 

Greensmith stated: “The morning was a bit tough. The tyres have been overheating an excessive amount of and it was fairly rocky. As soon as I put the arduous tyres on, it was okay. It’s a pleasant lead nevertheless it’s not a giant lead. Making an attempt to be tidy however it’s a only a disgrace we didn’t have any delicate tyres for the tremendous specials as a result of it killed our time. Tyre put on shouldn’t be such a difficulty tomorrow.”

Fourmaux had been coming underneath strain from younger Oliver Solberg, who was setting good instances after an early spin. Cruelly, the Swede sustained a puncture on the final of the gravel phases and it price him 1min 40sec. Defending WRC2 champions, Emil Lindholm and Reeta Hämäläinen, maintain third of their Toksport WRT2-entered Škoda Fabia Evo.    

Paraguay’s Diego Dominguez held a snug cushion over Canadian veteran Jason Bailey within the battle for WRC3 factors heading to the final stage of the day. 

The provisional classifications might be consulted right here.