Thierry Neuville holds an early Rally México lead for Hyundai after winning both runs of Thursday night’s Street Stage Guanajuato.
The 0.7-mile test through Guanajuato is the traditional curtain raiser of Rally México with its carnival like atmosphere creating a real buzz in the streets.
But at a combined length of 1.4 miles, the back-to-back runs of the test are a mere scratch on the surface of what’s to come later in the rally with the gaps throughout the field predictably tight.
However, Neuville stole a march on SS1 with a time underneath the one-minute barrier, 0.4 seconds quicker than world championship leader Elfyn Evans.
Despite confessing he “really doesn’t like these stages,” Dani Sordo shared the third quickest time with Teemu Suninen, 0.9s adrift of Neuville’s benchmark and ahead of six-time champion Sébastien Ogier and Ott Tänak’s Hyundai.
Times tumbled for SS2 as the dust began to be swept from the cobbled streets but it was still Neuville who was quickest.
He knocked 1.6s off his SS1 time to take another stage win and lead the rally by 1.1s over Evans.
“I enjoy that stage, I’ve always been fast but I know that every tenth will count this weekend so I have to push very hard on every stage with the road cleaning,” Neuville predicted. “I have to push on every meter.”
Evans was again second quickest on SS2 to head Tänak by 0.8s in third.
Suninen nicked 0.3s from Sordo on the second pass to make fourth place his own with Ogier another 0.2s away from Sordo, 2.5s down on the leader.
“Tomorrow the real things are starting but I think tonight it’s always special to be here in Guanajuato so it’s nice to see this atmosphere,” Ogier assessed.
Gus Greensmith hasn’t been in WRC action since the Saturday of Rally Monte-Carlo and needs a good result after a disappointing opening round to the season.
The Briton is seventh and ahead of M-Sport team-mate Esapekka Lappi, who was off the pace on both runs of the stage.
Lappi is already 4.6s shy of the lead, which could prove costly later on.
Toyota’s teenage sensation Kalle Rovanperä splits the two M-Sport cars in eighth but was frustrated with his eighth fastest time on SS1. He is 4s away from Neuville out front.
WRC 3 leader Oliver Solberg is 10th in a Volkswagen Polo R5, only 1.8s away from Lappi.
Ken Block is in México with his Ford Escort RS Cosworth, affectionately known as ‘Cossie V2’, but was in strife right from the off.
He set the slowest time on both passes of the Street Stage Guanajuato test with a suspected engine misfire that was robbing the car of power as it visibly struggled to pull out of the corners.
“This atmosphere, this amazing little city with this huge crowd is part of what makes this rally special,” he said.
“But unfortunately I turned up into town with a car that was misfiring. I wanted to put on a show with some good donuts but the car didn’t want to cooperate this evening.”
Leading positions after SS2
1 Neuville (Hyundai)
2 Evans (Toyota) +1.1s
3 Tänak (Hyundai) +1.9s
4 Suninen (M-Sport Ford) +2.0s
5 Sordo (Hyundai) +2.3s
6 Ogier (Toyota) +2.5s
7 Greensmith (M-Sport Ford) +4.0s
8 Rovanperä (Toyota) +4.0s
9 Lappi (M-Sport Ford) +4.6s
10 Solberg (VW) +6.4s
