WRC Rally Mexico: Tanak past Evans to second as Ogier closes on win – WRC

Two stages wins on Sunday morning have propelled Toyota’s Ott Tanak to second place on Rally Mexico, with Sebastien Ogier now only one stage away from victory for Citroen.

Elfyn Evans had started the morning’s rally-closing loop in second place, only 2.2 seconds up on the chasing Tanak after struggling to keep pace with rally leader Ogier on Saturday.

Tyre strategy came into play with Evans taking a full set of medium compounds, while Tanak opted for a more conservative choice of four hards and a spare medium.

Evans’s more aggressive tyre choice did not pay off – the M-Sport driver unable to match Tanak’s pacesetting efforts from the very start of the final loop.

Despite being told to “go for it” by M-Sport team boss Malcolm Wilson, Evans still fell to third place after the Alfaro test – ending up 7.2s behind the championship leader with only the 6.7-mile Las Minas powerstage remaining.

Tanak won both stages but could not make significant inroads into Ogier’s lead, with the World Rally champion still holding a secure 24.4s advantage.

A quiet run from Thierry Neuville dropped him a further 8.3s off the final podium place. The Hyundai remains in a comfortable fourth place, 54.8s behind Evans.

Kris Meeke took a steady approach to conserve tyre life in preparation for the powerstage. With nearly five minutes in arrears to Neuville ahead and over seven minutes in hand over Benito Guerra behind, his fifth place was not under threat.

Race of Champions winner Guerra continues to lead the WRC2 category on his home event in sixth place overall, with Rally2 returnee Jari-Matti Latvala well behind in seventh.

Latvala was set to begin Sunday only 52.8s behind Bolivian teenager Marco Bulacia Wilkinson but had suffered a setback overnight, being handed a one minute penalty before Alfaro.

The Finn had worked on the rear anti-roll bar of his Toyota Yaris WRC during the light fitting zone prior to Saturday’s pair of superspecials at Leon Autodrome.

He had already been given a 10s penalty for checking out of said time control late but the work carried out on his Yaris was itself against the rules, something Latvala indicated to officials he was not aware of.

Latvala effectively neutralised his penalty with his run on Alfaro and subsequently demoted Bulacia Wilkinson to eighth place on Mesa Cuata, taking a 3.3s advantage over the second placed WRC2 runner into the powerstage finale.

Dani Sordo moved up to ninth, demoting local entrant Ricardo Trivino to the final points position in 10th.

Both Sordo and fellow Hyundai i20 pilot Andreas Mikkelsen had been victory contenders early on before retiring on Friday.

Leading positions after SS20