Sebastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia secured their first victory for the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team with a record-equalling sixth Rally Mexico triumph. It was also the first win on the gruelling gravel event for the Toyota Yaris WRC.
The finish of the event was brought forward to Saturday evening, a decision taken in the face of fast-changing travel restrictions connected with the global COVID-19 virus outbreak to ensure safe and timely travel home for officials, competitors and team personnel. Some countries in Europe are going into lockdown in view of the pandemic numbers increasing.
In his third start with Toyota – and first on gravel – Ogier dominated proceedings after taking the lead on Friday’s second stage. He led by 13.2 seconds coming into Saturday, and immediately extended that advantage with a stunning stage win on SS13 Guanajuatito. His final winning margin was 27.8 seconds.
With his sixth Mexico win in 8 years – behind the wheel of four different cars – Ogier moves into the lead of the championship ahead of team-mate Elfyn Evans, who finished a strong fourth with co-driver Scott Martin after running first on the loose gravel roads on Friday.
Kalle Rovanpera continued the impressive start to his top-flight WRC career in fifth place: the 19-year-old’s third top-five finish in as many rallies, together with Jonne Halttunen. Rovanpera was within a few seconds of a podium place coming into Saturday, but was disadvantaged by running early in the road order.
With its all-new driver line-up having taken two wins in its first 3 events, Toyota’s rally team has further increased its lead in the manufacturers’ championship to 21 points.
“The first two years in Mexico, we could not fight during the rally due to overheating. But our engineers have put a lot of effort into improve the cooling system and finally we reached the top of the podium! I also thank their fighting spirits for the kaizen,” said Akio Toyoda, the Team Chairman and President of Toyota Motor Corporation.
The fourth round, to have been held in Argentina from April 23 – 26 as the event organiser announced it is postponed. The postponement follows many other motorsport events around the world, including major championships. In most cases, the governments of the host countries have started to ban events with large crowds for a period of time. Malaysia, for example, has banned public gathering of more than 250 people until April 30, 2020.
Related: COVID-19 pandemic disrupts motorsports around the world.
