The Latest Breaking News from Thierry Neuville

The Toyota driver, contesting a partial WRC season, once again outlined his skills to score his second victory of the campaign, following his record ninth Rally Monte Carlo triumph in January.

The Toyota driver, contesting a partial WRC season, once again outlined his skills to score his second victory of the campaign, following his record ninth Rally Monte Carlo triumph in January.

The eight-time world champion, competing in a partial WRC campaign, assumed the lead on Saturday morning after Hyundai rival Esapekka Lappi crashed out on stage 11.

The Hyundai driver lost control 10 kilometres into the Ibarrilla test and speared into a bank. The force of the impact flicked the car around, before rear-ending a telegraph pole as it came to a halt in the road.

The Hyundai driver lost control of his i20 N, 10 kilometres into the Ibarrilla test and speared into a bank. The force of the impact flicked the car around before rear ending a telegraph pole as it came to a halt in the road.

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.

This weekend marks the first gravel rally of 2023 and the third different surface in as many rounds, following the asphalt of Monte Carlo in January and the snow of Sweden last month.

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.