Mexico - day 3: Three in a row for Loeb.

Sunday, 2nd March 2008

Rally Mexico - Day 3 report: Sebastien Loeb replicates success from '07 and '06.

Previous Page

Latvala meanwhile had to settle for third, after having lost too much time on Saturday with that mechanical problem. It was a real shame for the Finn especially considering how he had managed to edge away from Seb on the first leg. He still took third though and that was quite a good consolation, especially as that was his pre-event target.

Further down the order Hirvonen re-took fourth in the penultimate stage when Henning Solberg lost 4-5 seconds with a puncture. Mikko himself had lost the place on Saturday when he had a double puncture in SS12 and dropped around 2.5 minutes.

Fifth for Henning wasn't too bad as it opens his account for the year and gives the Munchi’s Ford WRT, who he was nominated for here, a good start to the year. Indeed combined with Federico Villagra’s seventh place the Argentine squad gets six points from its first of ten events.

Advertisement [Go Advertisement Free]

Henning’s event was not easy though and he ended up losing more time in the very last stage when he had a damper problem.

Fellow Ford runner Matthew Wilson split the two Munchi’s drivers in sixth and the Englishman put in a good performance in the #8 Stobart Ford Focus.

Indeed despite losing around a minute on day 1, when he was held up in the dust of fellow WRC runner, Toni Gardemeister, he ended the day in seventh. He then gained another place on the second leg, even though he was slowed slightly when he hit a dog in SS11 and had a stone thrown at his windscreen in SS13.

Ricardo Trivino rounded out the top eight in his privately entered Peugeot 206 WRC, to give the home fans something to cheer about.

In the FIA Junior World Rally Championship category Sebastien Ogier took a dominant victory having led from start to finish in his Citroen C2 S1600.

The Frenchman won seven of the eight stages on the opening day and after that never looked back. He eventually beat Jaan Molder by around 1.5 minutes - a great performance on what was his first ever WRC event. He also finished ninth overall.