Citroen’s rising star Thierry Neuville has made a strong start to Rally Guanajuato Mexico with an impressive show of speed on Friday’s opening two stages - marking him out as one to watch in the future.
Mexico marks the first time that the young Belgian has driven his Citroen DS3 WRC on gravel. It is also the first time that Neuville has contested the Mexican edition of the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia.
Despite his inexperience of the hot and dusty Mexican roads, Neuville set the fourth-fastest time on both the opening El Cubilete stage and the second stage of the day, Las Minas.
“So far, so good,” said Neuville. “I’m happy with my times. We made a few small mistakes when we went out the line but nothing too bad. I will continue like this but for me the main thing is to gain experience.”
Neuville set one third-fastest stage time on snow during Rally Sweden last month, but always said that he was looking forward to Mexico most of all - as it is a less specialised surface than either Monte-Carlo or Sweden.
Mexico has an established habit of creating Citroen stars of the future: this rally was where Sebastien Ogier made his world championship debut and scored scored his very first point in 2008, en route to winning the Junior world title in a Citroen C2 Super 1600.