Skip to main content

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe
Live text
General

WRC Rally Mexico

Live Text

Sort by
But not for a month and a half now, as that's how long it is until Rally Argentina. In the meantime we'll have plenty of live coverage from Formula 1, MotoGP, IndyCar and much more.

Thanks for your company this weekend, please do get excited about the battle for the WRC runner-up spot, and keep an eye on Autosport and our sister publication Motorsport News for all the Mexico reaction this week.

Here's the full recap of the rally just finished:

WRC Rally Mexico: Jari-Matti Latvala claims dominant victory

Jari-Matti Latvala cruised to a first Rally Mexico victory ahead of Volkswagen World Rally team-mate Sebastien Ogier and Hyundai's Dani Sordo

WRC Rally Mexico: Jari-Matti Latvala claims dominant victory
Gorban is through. He's around for most of the year as well, we are going to have many more excuses to run a picture of a green Mini.
Latvala: Winner (McKlein)

Latvala: Winner (McKlein)

But here's his car! A Mini!

But here's his car! A Mini!

All the attrition means privateer Valery Gorban is going to be 10th in one of the old Prodrive Mini World Rally Cars. He's quite a way down the running order, so won't be in for a bit.
We can't bring you a full top 10 yet as we've got a Mini to wait for...
Checkered flag
Leading overall finishers:

1 Latvala
2 Ogier +1m05.0s
3 Sordo +3m37.9s
4 Ostberg +5m36.4s
5 Paddon +6m22.6s
6 Tanak +9m59.5s
Information
Powerstage results:

1 Ogier 9m57.1s
2 Latvala +5.4s
3 Paddon +10.4s
4 Ostberg +13.9s
5 Sordo +17.4s
6 Tanak +32.7s
7 Bertelli +33.2s
8 Camilli +34.1s
Information
So by our often unreliable maths, the championship now looks like this:

1 Ogier 77
2 Ostberg 39
3 Mikkelsen 33
4 Sordo 33
5 Paddon 29
6 Latvala 27
7 Tanak 24
8 Neuville 15
Latvala admits he thought Ogier would probably nail the powerstage. But, frankly pfff, I needed to win the rally, he says. We paraphrase.
Quote
"it's a fantastic feeling. Two rallies with zero points, my mind was not so good... This has not been a strong rally for me in the past. I was here for the first time 10 years ago and this is the first time I've driven it without problems," says Latvala.
Latvala and co-driver Miikka Anttila are straight on the roof to celebrate.
And time to tweet as he crosses the finish line too. Fine skills.
Checkered flag
Ogier has the powerstage by 5s, but Latvala has the rally win by 1m05s!
It is hard to relax until Latvala actually finishes a stage and gets the job done, isn't it?
Ogier does seem to be chilling out a touch about these running order rules, doesn't he? The stack of wins and titles are probably helping.

First on the road in Argentina next month will be a trial, too. And in Portugal a month after that.
Quote
"It's been good," says Ogier. "I did everything I could this weekend and I must be happy with that. It's good points for the championship."
Stopwatch
Ogier blows Paddon's benchmark away by 10s, another powerstage win looks likely but that's only going to be second in the rally.
Stopwatch
Third on the powerstage so far for Sordo, but that's third in the rally overall - three podiums in three rallies for the new Hyundai.
Stopwatch
Latvala is second fastest at the split, 1.8s off Ogier. He's giving it a good go.
Quote
He adds that he's "been really pushing throughout the rally, and I'm pleased to be at the end with fourth place."
Quote
"Oh, OK. I wasn't aware," is how Ostberg celebrates moving up into second in the championship three rallies into his return to M-Sport.
Stopwatch
Ogier is, inevitably, flying: he's 4s up on Paddon at the split.
Stopwatch
Ostberg is 3.5s slower than Paddon at the finish. That secures fourth place overall.
And since then, it's been miserable for Latvala. He was second in Spain but was agonisingly close to being the one who won that when Ogier shunted - instead it was team-mate Mikkelsen, by 3s.

Then he crashed very early in Wales, started 2016 with a shunt and controversy in Monte Carlo, and followed it with a driveshaft breakage that ruined his rally and another shunt for good measure in Sweden.

But this weekend he's been perfect.
Green flag
Latvala enters the stage. Ten miles between him and a first win since Corsica last September.
Quote
"We've had a difficult weekend. This is a small consolation," Paddon adds.
Quote
"I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks, we needed to bring the car home, but it would be nice to get a bonus point," admits Paddon.
Stopwatch
Paddon storms in 22.3s faster than Tanak. It's been a problematic weekend for Paddon but he'll take home a decent fifth overall to follow his second place in Sweden.
Stopwatch
Paddon remains the man to beat on this stage - Hyundai team-mate Sordo is 1.6s off his pace.
Tanak has secured sixth, incidentally. And did not visit any lakes this weekend.
Green flag
Ogier charges onto the stage. Unless there's a disaster for Latvala, Ogier will not be completing his clean sweep of 28-pointers in 2016. But 21 would do nicely...
Stopwatch
Ostberg is 2s down on Paddon at the split. Tanak comes in fastest so far, half a second quicker than Bertelli.
Ogier and Latvala are now queuing at the startline. Ogier took just under half a minute off Latvala on the 50-mile stage that preceded this - showing that it definitely was worth Latvala building that big advantage on Friday and Saturday - but 1m10s is way too much to overcome in these 10 miles. Latvala has it in the bag, but there's still powerstage pride and a faint hope of a title battle to fight for.
Green flag
Ostberg and Sordo are on the stage too - they're on course for fourth and third places.
Stopwatch
After Tanak, Paddon is on the stage and he's nearly 10s faster than anyone else at the split.

By: Matt Beer

Published: