Loeb extends lead

Sébastien Loeb ran a clean and strong day to pull away from Mikko Hirvonen in the battle for Rally Mexico.

When he needed to, he pushed, when he got a comfortable lead, he controlled. That is the formula that has seen Sébastien Loeb win eight titles and 68 WRC rallies. Number 69 is just around the corner. Loeb will head into day three with a 36.2 second lead over team-mate Mikko Hirvonen.

After the Ford’s had more problems on day 2, the only drama left would be if one or both DS3s have a Sunday problem. Jari-Matti Latvala has scored plenty of stage wins, but has dropped time with driver related errors. Petter Solberg is fourth, but he has had nearly as many punctures as JML has scratch times and it’ll be a tall order for the Norwegian to step on to the podium.

Ostberg is the highest placed customer entry

Mads Ostberg is the highest placed customer entry in fifth. The M-Sport Fiestas of Ott Tanak closes out Saturday in sixth. Nasser Al-Attiyah moved past Evgeny Novikov for seventh place on the final stage, win the Russian tore off a corner of his Ford in the final kms of the stage.

SS20
1 Latval
2 Solberg +2.5s
3 Hirvonen +11.0s
4 Loeb +11.3s
5 Ostberg +13.0s
6 Al-Attiyah +15.8s
7 Tanak +18.1s
8 Neuville +20.3s
9 Block+35.7s
10 Ogier +39.3s

TOP TEN OVERALL
1 Loeb
2 Hirvonen +36.2s
3 Latvala +1:53.0s
4 Solberg +2:10.9s
5 Ostberg+2:44.2s
6 Tanak +4:22.1s
7 Al-Attiyah + 6:00.8s
8 Araujo +10:42.1s
9 Ogier +12:02.7s
10 Block +13:51.8s