Citroen experienced contrasting emotions on Rally Mexico’s day two as its iconic crew Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena authoritatively took the lead, before unfortunately picking up a puncture that dropped them back to fifth overall. Meanwhile, Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle moved up to second.
“[In the] morning, it was really nice to be able to confirm [Friday’s] performance and hold the overall lead six years after my last Rally Mexico. To be honest, I hadn’t expected to be in this position before the start but it’s reassuring to know that I haven’t lost my driving skills!”, Loeb smiled.
“It was all set to be a good battle at the front until we got the puncture. There were two successive corners with stones on the inside of the bend. We went over them a little and one of them proved fatal. The mistake we made was to change the wheel. I wasn’t very familiar with how these tyres last and our instinct was the wrong one, probably from cross-country rallying, in fact! We would have lost a lot less time had we not stopped to change the tyre, but that’s just the way it goes. We’ll now try and make it to the finish, and enjoy driving the car as much as possible.”
On a tapé une pierre au milieu de la trajectoire … On ne pensait pas crever avec ce choc. C’est le jeu … Ce n’était pas l’ES13 mais l’ES14 cette fois-ci … #WRC #CitroënRacing https://t.co/fYY13dKAmd
— Daniel Elena (@DanosElena) March 10, 2018
Pierre Budar also pointed out it was a day of mixed fortune.
“The decision to change the tyre proved very costly because otherwise, they would have ended the day on the podium. But we can’t really hold it against them, especially after their majestic display here! Meanwhile, Kris produced a solid performance, despite a few silly mistakes, and now has a good chance of securing a really strong result. He still has to finish the job tomorrow!”, the team principal added.
Citroen experienced contrasting emotions on day three as its iconic crew Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena authoritatively took the lead, before unfortunately picking up a puncture
Meeke said It was a good day for him in terms of rhythm, especially in the morning when he was really comfortable.
“I then benefited from Seb’s puncture, but that’s part and parcel of rallying, and this stage was particularly tricky, with a lot of loose stones on the road. We now have to finish off the job by making sure of second place, but it won’t be an easy task. The power stage might also be interesting, with temperatures that will have risen by lunchtime, whereas we’ll have to decide on tyre choice when it’s much cooler, early in the morning”, Meeke commented.
?? SS 15 – Otates 2 (26,37 km)@krismeeke :”I had a spin and had to go back through the dust and turn around. We’ve lost 30sec easily. Too many little, stupid mistakes this weekend.”#WRC #C3WRC #RallyMexico pic.twitter.com/ubW7eeqdbp
— Citroën Racing (@CitroenRacing) March 10, 2018
