Ogier leads the race

Tanak rushes into the lake and escapes luckily

Sina Sports News On the evening of March 6 local time in Mexico, the third stop of the 2015 World Rally Championship (WRC) ended the first day of competition in Leon, a small city in the central highlands of Mexico. Ogier of Volkswagen team overcame the disadvantage of the first departure and occupied the first place; His teammate Ratvala was 13.5 seconds behind Ogier and temporarily ranked second in the game; Citroen's Ostberg was 16 seconds behind Ratvala and temporarily ranked third in the race.

Friday's race has eight stages (SS3 to SS10), with a distance of 145.13km. In the two short track races on Thursday night, Ogier led the race by 1.2 seconds, and Noyville of Hyundai ranked second. However, today's race is totally different from Thursday's short track. Ogier, the first starter, is faced with the task of "sweeping the road".

Surprisingly, Ogier was almost not affected by the dirt on the road today, which was mainly due to his correct tire strategy. Ogier chose soft tyres in the morning race, while most of his opponents chose hard tyres. In the morning race, because of the influence of low temperature, Ogier's tires had a great advantage. Although the surface of the road was very thick, Ogier did not lose much time. Instead, Ogier won the first place in the 44km long stage.

During the afternoon race, the topsoil of the track had been cleaned a lot, and Ogier's performance was not affected much. His stage performance has always been in the forefront, and his opponents have made various mistakes. Finally, Ogier has well controlled the situation and has always occupied the first place in the game.

Noewell of Hyundai team played well in the morning race, winning the fastest result of the whole race in a stage (SS5), only 8.9 seconds behind Ogier, the leader. Before the SS8 stage, he always occupied the second place in the game, but unfortunately, he overturned at the end of the SS8 stage 1km away from the end, damaged the radiator, and withdrew from today's race.

Ratvala of Volkswagen Team was a bit dull in the morning race, and always ranked third. He made some progress in the afternoon game, winning the fastest results in two stages (SS7 and SS8), and occupied the second place in the game after Noyville retired.

Citroen's Osterberg showed a stable performance today. He has occupied the fourth place in the whole race since the SS4 stage, and won the fastest performance in the whole race in the next stage (SS9). According to his performance, his performance should be improved, but because the car gearbox has been jumping gear, which has a certain impact on his performance, he finally ranked third behind Ratvala by 16 seconds.

Mikelson of VW's second team temporarily ranked fourth after Ostberg by 15.7 seconds. Mikelson's performance today was flat, completely lacking the style of Sweden, which has a lot to do with his conservatism. The young Norwegian driver overturned three times in two days in Mexico last year, which had a certain impact on his psychology. He also admitted that as long as the competition was successfully completed this time, he would not have too high expectations for the results.

Evans of M-sport team performed well today, ranking fifth in the game 18.7 seconds behind Mickelson. The Spanish driver of Hyundai team, Sordo, suffered from a series of problems such as gear shifting failure and flat tire today, but he still successfully completed the whole day race, ranking sixth in the race 36.6 seconds behind Evans. Czech driver Prokop temporarily ranked seventh in the race.

As many WRC drivers overturned and withdrew from the race, the eighth to tenth positions in the race were occupied by WRC2 drivers. Ukrainian driver Protasov temporarily occupied the eighth place in the race; Qatar driver Attiyah temporarily ranked ninth in the race; Peruvian driver Nicolas temporarily ranked 10th in the race.

The biggest news today is the accident of Tanak of M-sport team rushing into the lake. The Estonian driver had a fault less than three kilometers from the beginning of the first stage in the morning. A part of the front right wheel of the car suddenly broke, and the wheel turned to the outside. Under the guidance of the front right wheel, the car went straight into the lake at the roadside. The car sank to the bottom of the lake in more than ten seconds. Fortunately, both the driver and the pilot escaped successfully, only to be frightened.

Mick of Citroen won the fastest result in the SS3 stage and then rolled over to withdraw from the SS4 stage. Patton of Hyundai team also damaged the right rear suspension in SS4 stage, and withdrew from today's race. Polish driver Kubica ranked sixth in the SS3 stage, but he ran out of the track at 15km in the SS4 stage. Although he managed to return to the track again, he had to quit today's race because his car was damaged.

On March 7 (Saturday), there will be eight stages (SS11 to SS18) with a distance of 168.81km.

(A Hai)