The Latest Breaking News from Dani Sordo

Portugal’s rough stages represents the start of the WRC’s gravel season with this round the first of seven consecutive rallies held on the loose surfaces.

The team had been yet to announce its plans beyond Portugal for the third car since Craig Breen’s passing, until today’s announcement that Sordo will now add Sardinia (1-4 June) to his programme.

Breen was complementing his WRC third driver commitments for the Hyundai factory squad by running the Portuguese national series for the Hyundai Portugal squad in an i20 N Rally 2 car.

Top Performer - Sebastien Ogier and Vincent Landais 

The eight-time World Rally Championship title winner had been locked in a fight with Lappi throughout Friday, and faced a 5.3s deficit to the Finn heading into Saturday.

Lappi lit up the timing screens across the afternoon’s stages, winning three of the five tests to turn a 1.4s margin from the morning loop into a 5.3s advantage over six-time Rally Mexico winner Ogier.

Lappi made the most of an advantageous road position on the rough gravel stages to win two of the three tests that made up the morning loop.

The M-Sport driver clocked the fastest time through the two passes of the famous street stage held around the Unesco World Heritage site in downtown Guanajuato.

It’s not often that beer and sporting success go hand in hand. However, wind back the clock to Rally Mexico 2014 and this popular beverage played an unlikely, yet vital cameo in saving Hyundai from the heartbreak of throwing away a first World Rally Championship podium at the final hurdle.

Mexico’s famous rough gravel and high altitude mountainous stages last appeared on the WRC schedule in 2020, although the event, won by Sebastien Ogier, was shortened by the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last season tested Craig Breen’s and Oliver Solberg’s mental strength to the limit. At times, the World Rally Championship drivers were reduced to tears, but in Sweden the duo banished the demons of 2022 and rediscovered the ingredients for success