A stunning performance through the second pass of the 44.03km El Chocolate (SS7) promoted Sébastien Ogier into the lead.
Having won the previous Los Mexicanos stage to close to within 1.2sec of Mads Ostberg, the Frenchman blew everyone away in the longest stage of the day. He was fastest in his Volkswagen Polo R and 14.9sec up on Ostberg to not only overhaul the Norwegian, but build a 13.7sec lead.
Ogier’s effort deflated Ostberg. “Not so perfect. Disappointing. I struggled on the stage with a lot of oversteer,” admitted the Citroen DS3 pilot.
It wasn’t a great stage for Jari-Matti Latvala either. He was 17.9sec slower than Ogier in the second Polo R and admitted that the roads were still slippery from his position of first in the running order. That allowed Kris Meeke, second quickest, to move ahead of the Finn into fourth in his DS3.