Friday was a weird, weird day at Rally México. If you believe in such things, there’s no doubt it was Friday 13th. As the day progressed, sensitivities and concerns about the Coronavirus grew with every additional bottle of hand sanitizer that arrived in the Poliforum.
Almost unnoticed, Sébastien Ogier eased his way into the lead at the end of Ortega and stayed there for the rest of the day. The six-time World Rally Champion, still not comfortable with all aspects of his Toyota Yaris WRC, put those worries – and his concerns about the wider-world virus focus – behind him and drove quietly to the top of the timesheets.
If it was satisfaction and smile you were looking for, Toyota was the place to be, with all three cars in the top-five and championship leader Elfyn Evans handily placed in third.
The M-Sport Ford team was terribly conflicted with the shock of losing Esapekka Lappi’s Ford Fiesta WRC to fire following the El Chocolate test balanced slightly by the superb pace demonstrated by team-mate Teemu Suninen, who starts the day 13s behind Ogier and in with a very real shot of winning his first WRC round.
But the longest of faces were found at Hyundai.
From the moment Dani Sordo stepped out of his i20 Coupe WRC to tighten a pipe on the radiator – with less than four miles of gravel having passed beneath it’s wheels – this was not going to be the Korean team’s day.
Enigmatic team principal Andrea Adamo crossed his arms and set his furrowed brow for the day. His demeanour didn’t change through day one.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” was his poignant Friday offering.
Thierry Neuville’s electrical problem and a troublesome day for the defending champ Ott Tanak all added to the agony.
But you knew all of that, right?
What you came here for was an insight into what’s coming on Saturday.
Well, that rain that Colin Clark and I talked about ahead of the event – remember those consistent thunder storms throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Yeah… not so much.
It did rain last night, prompting me to send a highly excited email to my DirtFish colleagues promising a Saturday morning column on how the changing weather would impact on today’s stages more northerly stages centred around Leon.
I went to sleep listening to monstrous rain drops bouncing off the window. And there was definitely some lightening, unless somebody had forgotten to warn about flash photography outside the hotel. And that’s not as weird as it might sound. One of the highlights in the Hampton Inn’s Friday was Tanak’s arrival outside reception ahead of the leg-ending street stage.
Tanak stayed in the hotel with Toyota last year and knew its covered frontage would offer great protection from the impending pouring rain (which didn’t arrive). He and Martin Jarveoja did their tyre pressures, reminisced briefly about the highlights of the Hampton 12 months ago, then joined the rest of the WRC field warming their brakes in spectacular fashion on Leon’s main, three-lane thoroughfare.
So, today. It won’t rain. The skies are the bluest of blue and we’ll get some answers to the vital questions like whether Suninen can maintain pressure on Ogier, or whether Ogier can build his lead from the most favourable place on the road, and what’s coming in a three-four-five fight split by 2.5 seconds.
Saturday’s running order was decided at the end of the last dirt stage on Friday, when Evans was half a second behind Tanak and running fourth. That half a second cost the Welshman a place on the road and means he’ll run ahead of the Estonian today.
So, for now, it’s time to forget the virus, focus on the rally and stop asking the question of whether we should be here in the first place. We shouldn’t, by the way, but we’ll come to that later. For now, let’s crack on with Saturday and get going in Guanajuatito.
