Sébastien Ogier sets a record with a seventh victory in Mexico and takes the lead in the world championship

Sébastien Ogier continues to break records. The Frenchman won the Mexico rally, the third round of the season, on Sunday 19 March at the wheel of his Toyota. He thus set a new record by winning this round of the World Rally Championship for the seventh time.

The eight-times world champion, who drove carefully on Sunday so as not to waste his 35-second lead, still won the last stage, the Power Stage. Who add five more points to the 25 of the victory, and take the lead in the world championship (which he doesn’t dispute in full).

Two Toyotas on the podium

Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) is second just two hundredths behind the winner. He is ahead of the British Elfyn Evans, who brings a second Toyota to the podium after a hand-to-hand fight on the last day of the Mexican event, who is back after a two-year stop due to Covid-19. The reigning world champion, the Finnish Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) is in 4th place, trailing by 1’55’03.

Ogier, back after missing the Swedish Rally a month ago, benefited from the mechanical setbacks of the WRC world leader, the Estonian Ott Tänak (M-Sport Ford), ninth, and above all from a spectacular accident, fortunately not serious, who knocked out Finn Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) while running into the lead during Saturday’s 15th stage. Next stop on the WRC calendar: the Croatian rally, from 20 to 23 April, on notoriously narrow and bumpy paved roads.