WRC Rally Mexico: Sebastien Ogier leads after Thursday night
Sebastien Ogier claimed an early Rally Mexico lead by the end of Thursday night's three short curtain-raiser stages
Thierry Neuville had been quickest for Hyundai on the opening Guanajuato street stage, where Ogier was third.
But the reigning World Rally champion, who is unbeaten in the 2016 WRC season so far, set the pace on both runs of the following Leon superspecial.
That gave Ogier a 1.7-second overall lead from Neuville, though he acknowledged that will mean little when the event gets under way in earnest with some extremely long stages on Friday.
Ogier's Volkswagen team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and shakedown pacesetter Andreas Mikkelsen hold third and fourth.
With Mexico among the rounds the PH Sport-run Citroen team is skipping and M-Sport pair Mads Ostberg and Eric Camilli only 11th and 12th for now, the top six is shared between VW and Hyundai.
Dani Sordo, whose i20 required some repairs after an impact with a stone on the afternoon's shakedown, and Hayden Paddon are fifth and sixth.
Ford privateer Lorenzo Bertelli was an impressive second fastest to Neuville on the street stage, but slipped back to seventh after the superspecials.
Follow Rally Mexico as it happens with Autosport Race Centre Live from 3pm UK time on Friday
LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS3:
-
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
The eight minutes of madness that saw Ogier strike in Croatia
WRC Croatia: Ogier takes shock lead as Neuville, Evans crash
Toyota selects Ogier for WRC’s visit to Croatia
Erik Jones sidelined with compression fracture after Talladega crash
Alpine confident for 'good news' in Habsburg injury recovery
Ferrari "made too many mistakes" for podium fight at F1 Chinese GP
What is a wildcard in MotoGP and why is it used?
The eight minutes of madness that saw Ogier strike in Croatia
How Rovanpera showed his class above his WRC rivals in Kenya
How a new 'old' challenge is capturing the spirit of British rallying lore
How Lappi survived Swedish snow carnage to snap his lengthy WRC drought
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments