Ogier dusts off opponents in Mexico

Sebastien Ogier pulled off an incredible 3 minute victory in the VW Polo R’s first ever gravel rally at the Mexico round of the World Rally Championship. The Frenchman skilfully guided his Polo to the finish line to grab first spot and prevailed over Citroen driver Mikko Hirvonen in his DS3 WRC. Ogier worked his way to the top after having fended off a very strong challenge by Mads Ostberg from Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team, driving his Ford Fiesta RS WRC during the early stages of the rally, and even after that Ogier did face a lot of problems during the rally stages.

To begin with, he had to overcome the challenge from Ostberg. Then he had to stop and open a gate on one of the stages which had been inadvertently closed, and due to which he lost time. But the rally officials were quick to spot what happened and Ogier was given back the time lost in the gate incident. He also faced an electrical problem with one of the sensors on his Polo, which would have surely ended the race for him, but luckily his engineers were able to fix that in time. If that wasn’t enough, on his way to the podium, he hit his head on a half opened sliding door, which landed him with stitches just above his left eye. Needless to say he survived all of it.

Citroen’s Mikko Hirvonen looked in fine touch too, after having fended off a challenge by a very spirited Thierry Neuville, Mikko ended up placed 2nd overall. With three rallies done, Ogier sits at the top of the driver’s standings with a tally of 74 points, while Sebastian Loeb who is not participating in the full season is second with 43, and Hirvonen third with 30 points. The next venue, Portugal promises yet another fast paced and heart thumping race.