Unbeaten Ogier nets Mexico hat-trick
Championship leader eases to victory in Mexican mountains
Ogier in a dream world
Sébastien Ogier admits he can’t believe he leads the WRC drivers’ championship by 34 points after having dropped just three points in the opening three rounds.
Victory at Rally Guanajuato Mexico yesterday (Sunday) followed wins at Rallye Monte-Carlo and Rally Sweden. The Frenchman also took maximum points in the live TV Power Stages in Sweden and Mexico.
“To have this gap after three rallies is something I could never dream of. I don’t know which words to use to describe the start of the season and to describe this weekend,” said the Volkswagen Polo R pilot.
“It looks really great in the chanmpionship but we’ve done only three out of 13 rallies so there is definitely no time to relax. There are five rallies in a row on gravel now and normally that can be an advantage for me. I don’t want to say what might happen on the next one, but what is done is done.”
Ogier feared opening the road on Friday and Saturday would handicap him as he swept the gravel to leave faster conditions for those behind. As a result he focused on perfecting his car’s set-up in pre-event testing.
“I worked even harder than usuaI in the test to try to find a set-up which would work a little bit better in the slippery conditions. I don’t say we discovered something, but we went further in setting up the car for these conditions and it worked pretty well.
“We pushed hard without doing mistakes, pushing the others to make mistakes, and we were very surprised to be where we were on Friday. From then on we realised that finally, with all that happened, we were in the fight for victory. A perfect weekend maybe,” he said.
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