Volkswagen’s Jari-Matti Latvala has put down a marker with the fastest time in shakedown ahead of the opening street stage later today at Rally Mexico.
The leader in the WRC points standings, Latvala was fastest by 1.1sec on the dusty 6.27km Llano Grande stage ahead of Citroen’s Kris Meeke.
The Finn posted his best time on his fourth run and at one point Volkswagen was on course for a 1-2-3, before Meeke put his DS3 into second on his fourth and final run to move ahead of Sebastien Ogier by 0.9sec, with Andreas Mikkelsen a further 0.5sec behind.
“Generally I feel in the groove with the car,” said Latvala.
“Tyre wear was OK and this was a good way to get started. The stage had a narrow, technical section and a high speed part so it was a good sample of the actual rally, good preparation.”
Chris Atkinson was ninth in his first taste of Hyundai’s i20, the Australian completing five runs through the stage. The only other WRC driver to complete five passes was Mexico’s Benito Guerra, who was 10th, 1.2sec behind Atkinson.
Buy tickets
Stay tuned to Speedcafe.com for all the reports, times and video updates from Rally Mexico across the weekend.
RALLY MEXICO : Shakedown
| Position | Driver | Team/Car | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Jari-Matti Latvala | VW | 3m53.6s |
| 2 | Kris Meeke | Citroen | +0:01.1s |
| 3 | Sebastien Ogier | VW | +0:02.0s |
| 4 | Andreas Mikkelsen | VW | +0:03.5s |
| 5 | Mads Ostberg | Citroen | +0:03.6s |
| 6 | Mikko Hirvonen | M-Sport Ford | +0:04.6s |
| 7 | Thierry Neuville | Hyundai | +0:06.5s |
| 8 | Robert Kubica | M-Sport Ford | +0:07.9s |
| 9 | Chris Atkinson | Hyundai | +0:09.2s |
| 10 | Benito Guerra | M-Sport Ford | +0:10.4s |
VIDEO: Speedcafe preview with Chris Atkinson
