How could this happen? Converged on the first two stages of this year, as a result — zero points on the eve of the Mexican stage of WRC. All this has led to the fact that even a victory Latvala and points for second place on the Power Stage in no way changed the situation in the standings of the series.
The situation was aggravated the fact that the leader of the season Sebastien Ogier — despite the fact that he had to start first in the second and third days of the race — finished second. This second place was tantamount to victory, because at this time the Frenchman has been fighting in the championship not with Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen, Mads Ostberg and Dani Sordo.
Although the «fighting» it says loudly. When the gap between the first and second almost two-fold, it is no longer a struggle, and massacre of the innocents.
Rally Mexico have all been waiting. It was to show the true pace of the participants of the championship. For very specific Monte Carlo Rally and the Rally of Sweden could not reflect the real picture. And the final results of the race were disappointing...
The race was dictated get favorable starting position of Jari-Matti Latvala. Because of the zero points earned on your account Finn started at the end of the top ten and was driving on the cleared route. But his rivals were forced to engage in clearing the path. And most of all suffered from this Sebastien Ogier.
But even in such a situation, the French racer Volkswagen to make the most possible. Yes, he lost quite a few times. But rolling back on the fourth special stage at the second position Sebastien managed to keep it to the finish. And given the fact that currently race winner Jari-Matti Latvala is anything but a rival in the fight for the championship, second place Ogier ahead of all the other applicants, it was for the best result.
Cold calculation with which the Frenchman had a hot Mexican stage, must guard even more of his opponents. Freed from the fervor and associated errors to her, Ogier in danger of becoming a real perfection. And it will already not the most interesting period in the history of the World Rally Championship to the present catastrophe.
Imagine that Sebastien will continue to stamp the titles, not to offer a record of his namesake and countryman Sebastien Loeb?
As luck would have in Mexico with the problems faced by those who were waiting on the results of high — those who could oust Ogier of the top three.
The first is, of course, Andreas Mikkelsen. Norway's own hands destroyed his race. Errors, departures, early arrivals and departures on HF, after which the mechanics grabbed his head and admitted that they could not fix the Volkswagen Polo R WRC in the allotted time limits. Andreas failure led to the fact that he lost his second place in the standings. He shifted Mads Ostberg from M-Sport team. But let's not get ahead of ourselves — first transfer will continue losers.
Thierry Neuville rapidly passes from the «young hopeful» category «does not live up to expectations.» He has in the past year has lost the status of the first pilot Hyundai Motorsport, and the results are now more like a career of another Belgian Francois Duval.
In Mexico, Neville first flew, ranking second. And back in the race immediately flew again and was finally. Bosses of the Korean team have already expressed their dissatisfaction with this situation — clouds overhead Belgian continue to thicken...
But no luck, and two other riders Hyundai. Dani Sordo had the race in third position, but «because of» the error of their mechanics correctly count the number of wheel and establish superfluous two-minute shlopotal penalization and became only the fourth.
But Hayden Peddon just spent a not very brilliant race and finished fifth. This is a good result, but by teaching us their success is now a New Zealander necessarily expect more.
But if Mikkelsen, Neville, Sordo and Peddon not meet expectations, and Kris Meeke did not come to Mexico, then who was pleased?
First of all — Mads Ostberg. Norwegian sly crept to the top three after a fine Sordo climbed on the third step of the podium. The reward for success was the second place in the drivers' championship.
Mads It is now the main rival Ogier. Who could have imagined before the season-2016 that all come to this?
Sordo and Peddon rounded out the top five. Ott finished sixth Tyanak. Seventh place went to debut at this year's Martin Prokop. After it finished the race Lorenzo Bertelli, further offsetting the winner WRC 2 Teemu Suning County, and closed the top 10. Valeriy Gorban.
He has performed in Mexico and the Russian crew Radik Shaimiev and Maxim Tsvetkov. During the race Kazanets came in third place in the standings WRC 2, but on the ninth special stage of his Ford Fiesta R5 stopped. The gathering did not allow the Russians to continue the fight.
The next stage of the World Rally Championship will be held in Argentina. April 22 there will start 36th in a row Rally Argentina. South American Rally Championship will complete a visiting program and caravan WRC participants will move to Europe, where he will be the next five races: Portugal, Sardinia, Poland, Finland and Germany.
Photo: WRC
