Jari-Matti Latvala has claimed the first stage win on this year’s Rally Guanajuato Mexico for the factory Ford team.
However, in the battle for the lead, Sebastien Loeb’s recovery from his time penalty suffered a setback when he stalled on the final hairpin.
As a result, Loeb was 0.9 seconds slower than Citroen team-mate and rival Sebastien Ogier through the stage, the classification after which will determine the running order for the last day of the rally.
Loeb is 11.3s adrift of Ogier with just the two day-closing superspecials in Leon remaining, a gap that Ogier might stand a chance of preserving, despite the fact he will have to run first on the road for the second day running.
“I don’t have any handbrake since the middle of second stage [out of service] and I forget it for the final hairpin and when I wanted to use it I had no handbrake and I stalled,” said Loeb.
Ogier, meanwhile, reported that the intermittent power glitch he picked up in the last four kilometres of stage 17 has been cured.
There was drama for Petter Solberg who was delayed starting the stage when his Citroen DS3 WRC refused to fire up. He also broke his gear lever on landing after a big jump and suffered spin.
Standings after SS17 :
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | S. OGIER / J. INGRASSIA | Citroën DS3 WRC | 3h09m36.4s |
| 02 | S. LOEB / D. ELENA | Citroën DS3 WRC | +11.3s |
| 03 | M. HIRVONEN / J. LEHTINEN | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | +1m28.1s |
| 04 | J. LATVALA / M. ANTTILA | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | +2m41.4s |
| 05 | P. SOLBERG / C. PATTERSSON | Citroën DS3 WRC | +6m51.3s |
| 06 | M. ØSTBERG / J. ANDERSSON | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | +8m05.7s |
| 07 | H. SOLBERG / I. MINOR | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | +8m38.6s |
| 08 | N. AL-ATTIYAH / G. BERNACCHINI | Ford Fiesta S2000 | +10m43.5s |
| 09 | M. PROKOP / J. TOMANEK | Ford Fiesta S2000 | +11m20.3s |
| 10 | J. HÄNNINEN / M. MARKKULA | Skoda Fabia S2000 | +11m51.5s |
| 11 | K. BLOCK / A. GELSOMINO | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | +38m10.6s |
| 12 | R. SALGADO / D. SALGADO | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X | +41m59.8s |
| 13 | O. TANAK / K. SIKK | Ford Fiesta S2000 | +45m06.7s |
| 14 | F. VILLAGRA / J. PÉREZ COMPANC | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | +45m11.2s |
| 15 | B. GUERRA / J. MARIN | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X | +52m22.6s |