Day 2 – Loeb takes the lead… Latvala gets bogged down

At the end of the second day of the Mexico rally, the third round of the championship, Sebastien Loeb regained the lead, with more than a minute ahead of Atkinson. Latvala, yesterday’s leader, encountered some problems…

Loeb’s lead was secured when Jari-Matti Latvala experienced a turbo problem in SS13. The Ford driver lost nearly a minute. The Ford Focus was delivering only a portion of the turbo power for most of the stage. As a result, he handed over the second position to Chris Atkinson (Subaru).

Latvala and his co-driver Miikka Anttila attempted to repair the turbo using aluminum before the start of SS14, but the problem persisted. Over the next 23 kilometers, they lost an additional 45 seconds to Atkinson.

“It’s easier now,” said Loeb at the finish of SS14. “We pushed to build a sufficient lead over Jari-Matti. Now we have a nice gap over Atkinson, it’s a bit more comfortable. Now, we just have to finish, and finish first. There’s still a long way to go, but if it ends like this, it will be perfect.”

Atkinson is in a position to achieve the best result of his career. The 28-year-old Australian, who joined Subaru in 2005, has finished third twice, in Japan in 2005 and at Monte-Carlo earlier this year.

« It’s quite surprising but it’s the rally », admits Atkinson. « We’ve had our problems and so has Jari. We are now second with good stage times even though we haven’t really been in battle. Everything is working well. The gap in front and behind us is over a minute. We will try to make no mistakes tomorrow. »

At the end of the stage, a disappointed Jari-Matti admitted that he would settle for a podium: « We tried to fix it but without success. There was a little turbo but too little. The battle for victory is over, but if we can finish on the podium, that will be perfect. »

Henning Solberg is fourth for the Ford Munchi’s team. After experiencing brake issues all day, the Norwegian expressed relief at reaching the service area. Solberg will start the third day with only a fifteen-second lead over another Ford Focus driven by Mikko Hirvonen: “I don’t know,” Solberg wonders. “It’s probably more important for Mikko to score points, but I believe Munchi’s would give me a lot of kudos if I bring them a podium! Personally, such a result would be satisfying. We’ll see tomorrow.”

Hirvonen dropped out of the top 5, frustrated at having lost time with two punctures in SS12: “We were lucky to be able to continue,” he admits. After a disappointing rally, Hirvonen promises to attack: “Tomorrow, I’ll try to catch up with Henning. We’ll go flat out.”

Matthew Wilson holds the sixth position for the Ford Stobart team after escaping the worst when a spectator threw a stone in the middle of his windshield, leaving a star-shaped crack right in the driver’s line of sight.

Federico Villagra is seventh in the second Ford Munchi’s and the last WRC driver in the top 10. Villagra had a difficult day with a power steering failure.

Rally of Mexico – Day 2

According to the WRC