NEUVILLE FACESMEXICO ROADSWEEPINGDUTY

Roadorderislikelytohinderchampionshipleader’space

Thierry Neuville will face one of the biggest challenges of his career when he’s forced to open the road at this week’s Rally Mexico.

Arriving in Leon as championship leader, the Belgian will face the worst of the conditions on the opening day of the season’s first gravel rally. Neuville topped the WRC standings after Rally Finland last year, but that actually offered an advantage for the all-asphalt Rally Germany.

Despite understanding he will lose time to his rivals, Neuville remains upbeat about his situation.

“I know what’s coming,” he told MN after opening a 10-point advantage over his nearest rival Sebastien Ogier in Sweden. “But I am really happy with the performance we did in Sweden. We are ready for Mexico and we will do what we can. It’s part of the game.

“Morale and motivation couldn’t be higher. Mexico is a nice event with good memories from my first podium in 2013 and then when we scored Hyundai’s first podium a year later.”

Road sweeping will be a part of Neuville’s game of particular interest to Ogier. The defending world champion, who will be second on the road, has spent much of the last five years running at the front of the field. When he crashed out of the opening day of Rally Finland last year, Ogier was able to watch his rival’s progress opening the road. At the time, and still sore from his own retirement, he told MN: “Now he [Neuville] realise what is first on the road. There are not so many people who have seen that. Since years I have done this job and people like him, who have never done [it] often say: ‘Ah, it’s not so much, Ogier’s complaining too much.’ But now I see what he do when it’s tough and it’s nothing really impressive.”

Now Ogier will have the chance to inspect the Hyundai driver’s lines more closely as he follows him through this week’s roads around Guanajuato.

The M-sport Ford driver is, however, focusing on his own event rather than that of the man ahead of him – and Mexico is always an important event for Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia. Ogier said: “There’s always a special feeling when we return to Rally Mexico, because it’s where everything started

for me 10 years ago. It was our first event in the world championship and the story started with victory in the Junior WRC.

“Since then we added a couple of podiums and victories at the highest level, which means that I obviously have Rally Mexico in my heart. We’ll do our best to continue this love story with another strong result and are looking forward to the great Mexican atmosphere.

“The loose gravel can also pose something of a challenge for the early runners and, even though we won’t be the first car on the road next week, there will still be a lot of fast drivers behind us. We need to try and stay as close as we can on Friday morning. Then we can see where we are and push for the best possible result.”

Neuville and Ogier will struggle for grip in the loose on the opening day, but it would be unwise to rule them out of a scrap for the podium once the order is reversed for the weekend.

Round three does offer a gilt-edged chance for the drivers in the middle of pack, like Andreas Mikkelsen, Kris Meeke and Elfyn Evans running sixth, seventh and eighth on the road. They should enjoy the optimum running position with a swept line, but without the same potential for ruts or rocks being pulled out by the crews following.