Esapekka Lappi’s Rally México has come to a fiery end, as M-Sport World Rally Championship team-mate Teemu Suninen took a swipe at Sébastien Ogier’s lead.
Lappi had completed the second pass of El Chocolate 1.7 seconds quicker than Thierry Neuville in the pair’s battle for third place overall, but soon after the finish of the stage the rear of his Fiesta WRC caught alight.
The car was moved to safety with Lappi and co-driver Janne Ferm escaping the car in plenty of time but his weekend is done, with the Fiesta now a burnt-out shell.
In stark contrast, Suninen nibbled 2.1s from Ogier’s lead and is now 8.2s behind the six-time champion overall.
Neuville continues to hold third but is now 19.3s adrift of the lead, having opted for an alternative tyre strategy to his rivals with one medium tyre bolted onto his Hyudnai.
“We have to see on the whole loop what is working best,” he said.
Kalle Rovanperä showed some intent on El Chocolate 2, closing to within two and a half seconds of team-mate Elfyn Evans’ sixth place with a stage time that was 9.9s quicker. But he described his run as “strange”.
“I was feeling again like [I had] a puncture on the rear, the car was sliding a lot towards the end,” he said. “So again, not a good stage. The beginning was OK but not the end.”
Evans meanwhile was quicker than only Gus Greensmith on SS7 as he admitted the surface was “much more slippery than expected” on the second pass, where the cleaning effect was expected to be less severe.
Evans and Rovanperä are officially classified in fifth and sixth respectively but both will automatically move up a position with Lappi going no further.
Ott Tänak is the driver both Toyota runners need to worry about. The defending champion won El Chocolate 2 to narrow his deficit to Rovanperä to just 1.7s and extend his advantage over Greensmith to 25.2s.
Dani Sordo was running five minutes down on the leaders after a radiator problem on the first pass of El Chocolate. The second pass was no kinder either, as his Hyundai ground to a halt three miles from the end of the stage.
Leading positions after SS7
1 Ogier (Toyota)
2 Suninen (M-Sport Ford) +8.2s
3 Neuville (Hyundai) +19.3s
4 Lappi (M-Sport Ford) +23.9s
5 Evans (Toyota) +32.4s
6 Rovanperä (Toyota) +34.8s
7 Tänak (Hyundai) +36.5s
8 Greensmith (M-Sport Ford) +1m1.7s
9 Tidemand (Škoda) +3m37.2s
10 Gryazin (Hyundai) +4m19s
