Thierry Neuville calls, Elfyn Evans answers. The last day of competition of the third event of the 2023 WRC opened with a chat and answer on the verge of tenths between the two contenders for second place in the Rally of Mexico.
The Belgian from Hyundai Motorsport showed up by winning the PS20, the show race of just over 3 kilometers in which he nibbled a couple of tenths off Elfyn Evans, but the Toyota driver responded in kind.
In the long Otates of 35.63 kilometers Elfyn signed a great 24’37″7 with which he beat Neuville by 1″7, winning the race and bringing his advantage over his rival back to 5″8 when there are 2 races left at the end of the rally.
Sébastien Ogier continues to take advantage of the “Safety mode”, as he himself defined it at the end of SS21, perfectly managing his margin over his rivals. In the Otates he didn’t take any risks, losing 9 seconds from Evans. Now in the last 2 stages he will be able to count on a margin of 23 “2, a considerable booty.
Behind the top 3 the gaps are heavy and the positions are crystallized, except for Ott Tanak. The Estonian M-Sport driver, although he is racing with a broken shock absorber, recovered a position by exploiting the retirement of Adrien Fourmaux who preceded him in the general standings.
In this way, the 2019 world champion managed to get back into the points after the disastrous Friday, in which he had been slowed down by a turbo failure of his Ford Puma Rally1 EcoBoost Hybrid.
Fourmaux’s withdrawal also affects the ranking dedicated to the WRC2. Gus Greensmith now has victory in his grasp and behind him now is his teammate and defending series champion Emil Lindholm. The Finn took advantage of Fourmaux’s stop to move up one position and give TokSport Skoda a potential double.
Thierry Neuville calls, Elfyn Evans answers. The last day of competition of the third event of the 2023 WRC opened with a chat and answer on the verge of tenths between the two contenders for second place in the Rally of Mexico.
The Belgian from Hyundai Motorsport showed up by winning the PS20, the show race of just over 3 kilometers in which he nibbled a couple of tenths off Elfyn Evans, but the Toyota driver responded in kind.
In the long Otates of 35.63 kilometers Elfyn signed a great 24’37″7 with which he beat Neuville by 1″7, winning the race and bringing his advantage over his rival back to 5″8 when there are 2 races left at the end of the rally.
Sébastien Ogier continues to take advantage of the “Safety mode”, as he himself defined it at the end of SS21, perfectly managing his margin over his rivals. In the Otates he didn’t take any risks, losing 9 seconds from Evans. Now in the last 2 stages he will be able to count on a margin of 23 “2, a considerable booty.
Behind the top 3 the gaps are heavy and the positions are crystallized, except for Ott Tanak. The Estonian M-Sport driver, although he is racing with a broken shock absorber, recovered a position by exploiting the retirement of Adrien Fourmaux who preceded him in the general standings.
In this way, the 2019 world champion managed to get back into the points after the disastrous Friday, in which he had been slowed down by a turbo failure of his Ford Puma Rally1 EcoBoost Hybrid.
Fourmaux’s withdrawal also affects the ranking dedicated to the WRC2. Gus Greensmith now has victory in his grasp and behind him now is his teammate and defending series champion Emil Lindholm. The Finn took advantage of Fourmaux’s stop to move up one position and give TokSport Skoda a potential double.
