No time for Tanak to siesta in Mexico

The 23 competitors in the 2019 Rally Guanajuato Mexico will face 1 003km, including 21 special stages over 313km following tomorrow’s shakedown and the first stage on Friday night when there will be a ceremonial start.

Toyota Gazoo Racing field driver’s championship leader Ott Tanak (47 points), Kris Meeke (21 points) and Jari-Matti Latvala (10 points).

Chasing hard will be the Hyundais of Thierry Neuville (40 points).

The Belgian will be looking for support from team-mates Andreas Mikkelsen (12 points) and Spaniard Dani Sordo, who drives in his first rally of the season as a replacement for previous multiple victor Sebastien Loeb. M-Sport Ford are back to running just two official entries, Teemu Suninen and Elfyn Evans.

Suninen (one point) will be out to put more on the board after his 11th at Monte Carlo and a non-finish in Sweden.

Welshman Evans (13 points) is the man attempting to uphold the team’s honour but he faces a tough task.

Citroen’s current drivers’ champion Sebastien Ogier (31 points) is another who will be pushing to get on the leader board and retain that title after not finishing in Sweden.

His Citroen team-mate Esapekka Lappi (19 points) salvaged points for the team after a spectacular drive to take second place last time out.

The fight for the manufacturers’ championship looks set to be an epic one. Current title holder Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT (58 points) hold a single point lead over the Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT (57 points).

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