Kalle: We did what we could in Mexico

The Finn arrived to Guanajuato second in the championship standings and, as a result, ran second in the road order throughout the opening day of action.

A lack of traction on the loose gravel surface hit Rovanperä hard and left him close to two minutes adrift of winner and new series leader, team-mate Sébastien Ogier.

Rovanperä admitted the only disappointment from the weekend came from the Wolf Power Stage, where he was only able to take two points for fourth fastest through El Brinco. He finished fourth overall, dropping back to third in the series.

“We knew it would be a difficult weekend when we were kind of opening [after Tänak’s early problem] the road” he said.

“I couldn’t expect much more and I did everything I could. When you are starting where we started on Friday, making it to the podium on Sunday is always going to be tough. But I am happy we did what we could.

“On the Power Stage, we lost the rear wing going into a corner and straight away I couldn’t push so much without the downforce. We missed some points in this one, but there was nothing we could do about Séb in the place where he was starting.

“Congratulations to him (Ogier) - he did a great job.”