Neuville won the shakedown of Rally Mexico
Hyundai's Thierry Neuville won the damp shakedown of Rally "Mexico" on Wednesday evening.
So the new generation WRC cars stand for the first time on gravel and we all are looking forward to see the distribution of power between the manufacturers.
Neuville records his wining time after the third pass through the 5.31 kilometer Llano Grande stage, stoping the clock on 3:45.8 . Sebastien Ogier recorded second fastest time 1.7 seconds slower than Neuville also in his third pass, while Kris Meeke recorded the third best time on his fourth pass. The Citroen's driver fell behind by half a second behind Ogier.
"It was difficult to feel confident on this very twisty, technical road. Despite the rain, we kept working on improving the set-up and we moved in the right direction." explained Kris Meeke.
Kris Meeke tasting the damp condition in Mexico
The rally "Sweden" winner Jari-Matti Latvala record fourth fastest time, so each manufacturer has a representative in the top four of the shakedown.
This year's Rally Mexico's shakedown surprise all the drivers with relatively damp conditions and very narrow configuration compared with the actual stages of the rally. The rally contains several sections of road that have never previously been used and Neuville warned they could cause problems.
“The rally is tricky and we need to be very, very careful in the new parts which are rough in places,” he said. “They will be slippery with a lot or rocks everywhere because the stages have been graded. They have made the roads wider, but taken a lot of stones from the roadside onto the tracks, so it will be tough.”
The Belgian denies is under pressure after crashes out in Monte Carlo and Sweden.
“We’ve done many great things but obviously we weren’t able to get it to the end of the rally. We were a bit unlucky, hopefully we can bring home some good results now for the team.
“It’s important for the manufacturers’ championship but also for me in the drivers’ championship to catch some points on Ogier, Latvala and Tänak. The title is still possible. We can score 30 points on just one rally and they are only 40 points ahead,” he added.
SHAKEDOWN CLASSIFICATION
1 Neuville 3:45.8
2 Ogier 3:47.5
3 MEEKE 3:48.0
4 Latvala 3:48.3
5 Paddon 3:48.6
6 Sordo 3:48.7
7 Evans 3:48.9
8 LEFEBVRE 3:50.6
9 Hänninen 3:50.7
10 Bertelli 4:00.7
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