Teemu Suninen has responded to Ott Tänak’s challenge in the battle for second place of Rally México, losing just 0.6 seconds to the World Rally Champion.
Suninen was looking on course to beat Tänak, ahead by 1.9s at the penultimate split, but he overcooked the entry to a left-hander and bogged down as he tried to escape his error.
The gap between the pair now stands at six seconds.
Tänak wasn’t happy though, saying: “It’s amazingly bad feeling, I’m so surprised. It’s not working at all,” he blurted out at stage end.
With Sunday’s action now canceled, Sébastien Ogier is looking increasingly secure at the head of the field with just five stages left to run after Guanajuatito, three of which are short superspecials.
Ogier extended his lead once again, setting the second-fastest stage time, and now hold a 30.3s lead in his Toyota.
“Another good stage for us, we just to try and stay as clean as we can,” said Ogier, who is chasing a sixth Rally México victory and first for Toyota.
The Toyotas of Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanperä are now in races of their own, holding fourth and fifth position respectively. Evans was fifth fastest on Guanajuatito while Rovanperä clocked the sixth-fastest time, 5.1s slower than his team-mate = who he now trails by 43.2s.
“It wasn’t a great run, I just struggled,” said Evans.
Gus Greensmith continues his climb back up the leaderboard following his engine issue on Saturday morning.
The Briton overhauled Ole Christian Veiby – who spun right before the finish line – to take ninth spot.
“The rear just snapped, but I was not really pushing at all,” said Veiby. “[But] it’s been a really good day so far.”
His next target is WRC 3 leader Marco Bulacia, but with a two-minute gap to make up and just two lengthy stages left, it could be a tough ask for the M-Sport Ford driver.
Pontus Tidemand remains sixth ahead of WRC 2 rival Nikolay Gryazin but had a lary moment towards the end of Guanajuatito as he lost the rear and dropped the front of his Fabia R5 into a hole.
“I think we have a slow puncture, just feel there’s no support in the rear,” said Tidemand. But yep, we are here.”
The gap between the pair was actually extended, however, as Gryazin picked up a rear-right puncture of his own.
Thierry Neuville remains outside the top 10 after his electrical troubles on Friday. The joint championship leader won Guanajuatito as he looked to bank important manufacturer points for Hyundai.
Leading positions after SS16
1 Ogier (Toyota)
2 Suninen (M-Sport Ford) +30.3s
3 Tänak (Hyundai) +36.3s
4 Evans (Toyota) +51.5s
5 Rovanperä (Toyota) +1m34.7s
6 Tidemand (Škoda) +8m4.5s
7 Gryazin (Hyundai) +9m34.9s
8 Bulacia (Citroën) +11m26s
9 Greensmith (M-Sport Ford) +13m20.7s
10 Veiby (Hyundai) +13m39.5s
