Ott Tänak’s pursuit of Teemu Suninen took a decisive swing on the penultimate gravel test of Rally México as a stage win edged him to within touching distance of second place.
Tänak wasn’t happy with the feel of his Hyundai on the second pass of Guanajuatito but still took 0.6 seconds from Suninen, who made a small mistake. However, if his pace was an indication, that problem appeared to be behind him on Alfaro.
Either that or he battled through it, as the World Rally Champion cut 2.9s out of Suninen’s advantage to almost halve the gap to 3.1s with four stages of the rally remaining.
Sébastien Ogier’s untroubled run at the head of the rally continued on Alfaro 2 but he did lose some ground to Suninen behind. The Toyota driver dropped 2.2s, though that is no drama as he still holds a healthy 28.1s advantage out front.
Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanperä are both focused on bringing their Toyota Yaris WRCs home and sit in fourth and fifth respectively behind the squabbling duo of Suninen and Tänak. Evans is now 27.4s away from Tänak after starting the day two tenths ahead.
Gus Greensmith made enquiries about deposing WRC 3 leader Marco Bulacia of his eighth position but remains well over a minute behind.
Leading WRC 2 drivers, Pontus Tidemand and Nikolay Gryazin, are all but out of reach unless trouble strikes.
Thierry Neuville is making rapid gains of his own, although the time the Belgian is clawing back is meaningless as he lies 42 minutes adrift of Ogier following his retirement on Friday.
He is showing what could have been with his stage times though, as he was bettered only by his team-mate Tänak on Alfaro by just 0.4s.
Leading positions after SS17
1 Ogier (Toyota)
2 Suninen (M-Sport Ford) +28.1s
3 Tänak (Hyundai) +31.2s
4 Evans (Toyota) +58.6s
5 Rovanperä (Toyota) +1m47.1s
6 Tidemand (Škoda) +9m29.5s
7 Gryazin (Hyundai) +10m28s
8 Bulacia (Citroën) +12m15.6s
9 Greensmith (M-Sport Ford) +13m37s
10 Veiby (Hyundai) +14m21.1s
