Loeb flies to sixth Mexican win

The 2012 edition of Rally Mexico began with the short DC Shoes Street Stage, run around the streets of Guanajuaito, the host city. Petter Solberg, in his first gravel rally with the Ford Fiesta WRC RS, won the stage and set himself up for a perfect start to Day 1 proper.

Then, everything went as wrong as it possibly could have for the Norwegian. He clipped a bank on SS2, and punctured, then spun. And on the very next stage, SS3, he punctured again. Both of these punctures and the spin dropped him outside the Top 10. Seems the 2003 World Champion's poor luck hasn't completely gone yet.

This left Jari-Matti Latvala to take over the lead in the sister Ford, and from SS3 he began to eek out a small, but significant, lead over the Citroen of Mikko Hirvonen. Then Latvala had his turn as suffering some bad luck. He hit a rock on the racing line, puncturing a tyre and breaking the front suspension. 1 min 30 secs lost. Hirvonen took over the lead, then Loeb passed him for the lead. And he stayed there.

Both Ford's went hell-for-leather to catch the flying Citroen's, and by God were they flying. Latvala went from eighth to fourth by the end of the first day, and Solberg went from thirteenth to fifth. And neither were finished, with the lonely Mads Ostberg, then holding third, about to be caught by a flying Finn and the Norwegian in tow.

Day 2 was shaping up to be all about the two Ford's putting in some unbelievable times to take the fight to the Citroen's. Unlikely as it seemed, Citroen began to believe that Latvala was going to pose a problem to both their drivers. And both of them acknowledged his lightening speed. On the first proper gravel stage of the day, Latvala took third from Ostberg. But then the unthinkable happened, the Finn punctured. Impressively, he only lost 50 secs whilst driving 25 kms on the puncture.

4 stages later, and 3 stage wins later, he was back in third, but he himself now knew the win was out of reach, and second was a mammoth challenge. However, he didn't give up. Petter Solberg punctured yet again, and suffered problems with his brakes. This left him in a seemingly concrete fourth, with Ostberg fifth. Oh, and the Citroen's were still flying away ah the head of the field, Loeb heading towards his sixth Mexican win.

Everything really fell apart for Latvala on the final day. After all his problems, third seemed a decent result, keeping his championship on track (even though he would still be between 22 and 25 points off points leader Loeb). However, during the massive 54.3 km Guanajuatito test, Evgney Novikov tore his roof vent off, filling his car with dust. This massively limited his vision and, possibly, contributed to his huge crash on the stage, with the car rolling six or seven times. Then, a little while later, Latvala came upon the scene, flat out as usual. He saw the Russian's wreaked car and thinking it was on the stage, panicked and stood on the brakes, sending his car sideways and into a bank. This threw his can into a roll, coming to rest on it's wheels. He managed to continue, albeit 6 mins behind time, but the crash damaged his roll cage and, according to FIA ruling, he couldn't continue. He was out, all his hard work from the previous two days lead to naught.

At the head of the field, Sebastian Loeb won ahead of Mikko Hirvonen, completing Citroen's first 1-2 of the year. Petter Solberg took his third straight third place, as well as the 3 points for the Power Stage win, ahead of fellow Norwegian Mads Ostberg in fourth.

Ott Tanak, in his Mexico début, took a fine fifth, which nearly became fourth when Mads Ostberg punctured on the 54.3 Km Guanajautito test. Nasser Al-Attiyah, in his first gravel event in a WRC car, brought his car, in quite a sideways fashion, home in sixth. The Qatari driver was fourth on the 54.3km SS22, a stage he was expected to shine on with his Dakar experience. 54 kms is a bit short for the Qatari, who would be more accustomed to 300kms per stage during the Dakar Rally, with a height of 890kms during one stage, taking 12 hrs to finish. Even Sebastian Loeb might be slightly nervous tackling a stage of 890 Kms over the rough Mexican stages!

Armindo Araujo took his works MINI home in seventh, the sole surviving works MINI. Paulo Nobre managed to roll the car on Friday, and then crashed yet again on Saturday. He was 17^th, over 1 hr 11 mins off the lead. Even the irrepressible Jari-Matti Latvala would fail to bridge that gap.

Sebastian Ogier got his S2000 Skoda to eighth, struggling more than others with the lack of air, and hence power, in the high-altitude Mexican stages. Ken Block, spectacularly as ever, managed ninth, on his first of three outings this year. Tenth went to Ricardo Trivino, in a unique run in a WRC-spec Fiesta WRC.

Benito Guerra was a happy man with a home P-WRC win, over 4 mins ahead of second placed Nicholas Fuchs. Michal Kosciuszko took third, after a good few problems.

Not classified in the final points were Theirry Neuville, Chris Atkinson and Evegny Novikov. Neuville shocked the establishment with a good run, holding fourth at one point on Friday and catching third. Only inexperience, and a lost argument with a Mexican kerb, lost him a wheel and left him down in 13^th. Chris Atkinson ran consistently at the lower end of the Top 10, not bad for his first outing in a WRC car for 3 years, and his first run in a new-generation car. This consistent run ended with brake failure sending him into a bank after the flying finish of SS22. Evegny Novikov, as explained above, rolled spectacularly out of the rally, only a few minutes before Jari-Matti Latvala did the same.