Ogier takes control of Rally Mexico as Lappi crashes out on Saturday
19th March 2023Toyota’s eight-time world champion, Sebastien Ogier, inherited the rally lead after Hyundai’s leading driver, Esapekka Lappi, crashed out on the opening stage.
Nine stages lined up the third day of running, the longest test of the weekend in terms of individual stages which consisted of a morning and afternoon loop of Ibarrilla (SS11 & SS15), El Mosquito (SS12 & SS16) and Derramadero (SS13 & SS17).
Saturday also consisted of three superstage specials, one which split the morning and afternoon loops (Las Dunas Superspecial 2 – SS14) and two at the end of running: Las Dunas SSS 3 (SS18) and Rock & Rally SSS (SS19).
The third day was the longest day of running for the drivers with a total mileage of 128.61km in the special stages – 0.60km more than Friday’s test.
Lappi out, Ogier on top
Lappi looked to be on course to secure his first win of his, and Hyundai’s, 2023 championship campaign. The fight between himself and Ogier was close as the Finnish driver edged out the Toyota by 5.3 seconds.
On the opening stage of the day, through a fast right-left kink, Lappi’s rear end stepped out as he navigated the course and his i20 soon collided with the small bank along the road. The Hyundai was quickly sent into a spin, and Lappi went backwards into a utility pole.
Both Lappi and his co-driver, Janne Ferm, were uninjured in the incident.
In result, Lappi’s misfortunes allowed Ogier to take control of the rally ahead with 27.3 seconds in hand over teammate, Elfyn Evans.
Hyundai remain in the mix
Following Lappi’s crash, Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville became the leading driver for the Korean manufacturer in third place. Hyundai’s Daniel Sordo rounded out the top five, at the end of the day, +2:21.2 from Ogier but +47.2 behind Toyota’s defending world champion, Kalle Rovanpera who was in fourth.
While Evans was, relatively speaking, within reach of the race lead, the Welshman had to keep his eyes peeled around him as Neuville started to make inroads on the Toyota driver. The Belgian secured four stage wins across Saturday, alongside Ogier and Ott Tanak, M-Sport Ford, who secured two stage wins each.
By the end of the third day of running Neuville cut down the gap from 11 seconds to 4.3s but remained in third behind Evans.
Ford woes continue
M-Sport Ford hasn’t had the best time in Mexico this weekend as none of its drivers sit within the top 10. Tanak suffered turbo issues on Friday which dropped him down the order while both Pierre-Louis Loubet and Jourdan Serderidis tumbled down the order with their own incidents.
By the end of Saturday, Serderidis sat amongst the Rally2 and Rally5 cars in 26th place, alongside Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta who plummeted down the field – to 25th – after his fall down a bank on Friday. Loubet rounded out the field in 29th, and last place, 1 hour and 51 minutes adrift of Ogier’s leading time.
Tanak was the only driver in the team to put in a shift to return to the top 10. After the Estonian finished the second day in P17, the leading Ford Puma recovered to 11th in the order after the final stage of Saturday – 1:51.2 behind 10th-placed WRC2 driver, Kajetan Kajetanowicz.
Top five:
- Sebastien Ogier, Toyota
- Elfyn Evans, Toyota
- Thierry Neuville, Hyundai
- Kalle Rovanpera, Toyota
- Daniel Sordo, Hyundai
That’s all for the article; Ogier takes control of Rally Mexico as Lappi crashes out on Saturday!
Will Sebastien Ogier secure his record-breaking win in Mexico? Let us know in the comments!
Read more WRC here:
- Rally Mexico: Lappi takes over as Ogier trails just behind
- Rally Mexico: Tanak dominates opening stages to take early lead
- Oliver Solberg secures WRC2 victory in Rally Sweden
- Rally Sweden: Tanak secures Ford’s first win in 2023
- 2023 Rally Sweden: Tanak snatches lead away from Breen
- 2023 Rally Sweden: Breen leads Hyundai’s charge on second day
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
