The 2023 Rally Mexico (also known as the Rally Guanajuato México 2023) was a

motor racing An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

event for

rally cars Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Political demonstration, a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a North American school or college sporting event Sports ...

held over four days between 16 and 19 March 2023. It marked the nineteenth running of the

Rally Mexico Rally Mexico, formerly known as Rally America is a round of the FIA World Rally Championship. The rally entered the championship schedule in the 2004 season. The event's itinerary is based in the state of Guanajuato. The stages take place in ...

, and was the third round of the

2023 World Rally Championship The 2023 FIA World Rally Championship was the 51st season of the World Rally Championship, an international rallying series organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and WRC Promoter GmbH. Teams and crews competed for ...

World Rally Championship-2 The FIA WRC2 is a support championship of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the parent series and crews usually compete immediately after Rally1 class crews. WRC2 is limited to production ...

and

World Rally Championship-3 The FIA WRC3 is a support championship of the World Rally Championship. The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the parent series and crews usually compete immediately after WRC2 entrants. Entry into WRC3 is limited to cars that ...

. The 2023 event was based in the city of León in

Guanajuato Guanajuato, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato, is one of the 32 states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Guanajuato, 46 municipalities and its cap ...

and was consisted of twenty-three special stages, covering a total competitive distance of .

Sébastien Ogier Sébastien Eugène Emile Ogier (; born 17 December 1983) is a French Rallying, rally driver, competing for the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team in the World Rally Championship (WRC). He is currently teamed with co-driver Vincent Landais. He has won 8 List ...

and

Julien Ingrassia Julien Ingrassia (born 26 November 1979) is a retired French people, French rally (sports), rally co-driver. Working with Sébastien Ogier, he became World Rally Champion in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 with Volkswagen Motorsport, 2017 World Rall ...

were the defending rally winners. However, Ingrassia did not defend his title as he retired from the sport at the end of

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Pontus Tidemand Pontus Johan Tidemand (born 10 December 1990) is a Swedish rally and rallycross driver. He is the 2017 WRC-2 champion and a previous M-Sport and Škoda Motorsport driver. Pontus is the son of Swedish rally driver Tomas Tidemand and ex-rally co ...

and Patrick Barth were the defending rally winners in the WRC-2 category.

Marco Bulacia Wilkinson Marco Bulacia Wilkinson (; born 27 September 2000) is a Bolivian rally driver. He currently partners with co-driver Diego Vallejo in the WRC-2 category. His younger brother Bruno is a rally driver also. Rally career Bulacia Wilkinson made his ...

and

Giovanni Bernacchini Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

were the defending rally winners in the WRC-3 category. Ogier and

Vincent Landais Vincent Landais (born 17 October 1991) is a French rally co-driver. He is the co-driver of the French rally driver Sébastien Ogier, racing for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT in the World Rally Championship. Rally career Landais and Loubet started in ...

won their second victory of the season. Their team,

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT The Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team is a competitor of the World Rally Championship (WRC) based in Finland, serving as the entry for the car manufacturer Toyota. Its team principal is former WRC driver Jari-Matti Latvala and its drivers for ...

, were the manufacturers' winners.

Gus Greensmith Fergus "Gus" Greensmith (born 26 December 1996) is a British rally driver. Rally career Greensmith's family owns fuel and lubricants distributor Crown Oil. A former youth goalkeeper for Manchester City F.C. and karter before moving into th ...

and Jonas Andersson and Patrick Barth were the winners in the WRC-2 category, while Diego Dominguez Jr. and

Rogelio Peñate Rogelio () is a masculine Spanish given name and a variant of the first name Roger. Notable people with the name include: * Rogelio Antonio, Jr. (born 1962), Filipino chess player * Rogelio Armenteros (born 1994), Cuban pitcher in Major League Ba ...

were the winners in the WRC-3 category.

Background

Entry list

The following crews were entered into the rally. The event was open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, its support categories, the World Rally Championship-2, World Rally Championship-3 and

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

entries that were not registered to score points in any championship. Ten were entered under Rally1 regulations, as were ten

Rally2 Group Rally2 is a technical specification of rally car determined by the FIA. It features 1.6L turbo engines, four-wheel drive and a maximum weight-to-power ratio of 4.2kg/hp. Rally2 cars are used in the World Rally Championship and continental ...

crews in the World Rally Championship-2 and one Rally3 crew in the World Rally Championship-3.

Itinerary

All dates and times are CST ( UTC-6).

Report

WRC Rally1

Rally Mexico opened with 2 runs around a superspecial stage in

Guanajuato City Guanajuato (, Otomi language, Otomi: ) is a municipalities of Mexico, municipality in central Mexico and the capital of the Guanajuato, State of Guanajuato. It is part of the macroregion of the Bajío. It is located in a narrow valley, which makes i ...

, and it was

Ott Tänak Ott Tänak (; born 15 October 1987) is an Estonian rally driver and the 2019 World Rally Champion. He is currently teamed with Martin Järveoja and is competing for Hyundai Motorsport in the World Rally Championship. Tänak achieved his maiden ...

and

Martin Järveoja Martin Järveoja (; born 18 August 1987) is an Estonian rally co-driver. He is currently teamed with Ott Tänak and is competing for Hyundai Motorsport in the World Rally Championship. Rally career He is the son of Estonian politician Toomas ...

who was fastest on both runs, taking a 1.7 second lead over Kalle Rovanpera and

Jonne Halttunen Jonne Halttunen (born 13 December 1985) is a Finnish rally (sports), rally co-driver. Currently, he is the co-driver of Kalle Rovanperä, driving the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. Previously, they represented Škoda Motorsport to participate in the 20 ...

into Friday. However, on the first stage of the day, the 29-kilometer El Chocolate stage, the Estonian crew's

turbo In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (also known as a turbo or a turbosupercharger) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake air, forcing more air into the ...

failed, causing them to drop to twenty-ninth place and almost 8 minutes behind the leaders,

Esapekka Lappi Esapekka Lappi (; born 17 January 1991) is a Finnish rally driver. He is the 2012 Finnish Rally Champion, 2014 European Rally Champion and the 2016 WRC-2 Champion. He now drives for Hyundai Motorsport. In 2024, he won his second ever event in ...

and

Janne Ferm Janne Ferm (born 29 August 1980) is a Finnish rally co-driver. He is currently teamed with Esapekka Lappi and is competing for Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT in the World Rally Championship. Rally career Janne Ferm began his rally career in 2007, c ...

. Lappi and Ferm would lead the rally at the end of Friday by 5.3 seconds, ahead of 8-time World Champion

and his co-driver

. The rally leaders had a serious accident on the opening stage of Saturday, their

Hyundai i20 The Hyundai i20 is a supermini hatchback produced by Hyundai since 2008. The i20 made its debut at the Paris Motor Show in October 2008, and sits between the i10 and i30. The i20 replaces the Getz in nearly all of its markets, while several ...

going rear first into a

telegraph pole A utility pole, commonly referred to as a transmission pole, telephone pole, telecommunication pole, power pole, hydro pole, telegraph pole, or telegraph post, is a column or post used to support overhead power lines and various other public util ...

. The car then caught fire, causing the stage to be red-flagged.

Thierry Neuville Thierry Jean Neuville ( ; born 16 June 1988) is a Belgian rally driver who is competing in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. During his career, he has finished as runner-up five times (2013, 2016–2019) and achieved his maiden ...

and Martin Wydaeghe won the following 3 stages, whilst Ogier and Landais had a 29 second lead over

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

teammates

Elfyn Evans Elfyn Rhys Evans (born 28 December 1988) is a Welsh professional rallying, rally driver. He has competed full-time in World Rally Championship since 2014, originally for M-Sport Ford World Rally Team, M-Sport Ford and currently for Toyota Gazoo ...

and Scott Martin. Ogier would extend his lead to 36 seconds, as his teammates Evans and Martin's gap to third place Neuville and Wydaeghe was reduced to 4.3 seconcds. Evans and Martin were locked in a battle with Neuville and Wydaeghe for second place, the Belgians closing the gap to 2.7 seconds as they began the

Power Stage The Power Stage (abbreviated as PS) is a Special stage (rallying), special stage that usually runs as the final stage of a rally in the World Rally Championship (WRC) and European Rally Championship (ERC). Additional championship points are avail ...

, a suspected bent suspension arm costing Evans and Martin on the penultimate stage. In Power Stage, Neuville and Wydaeghe gained 3.1 seconds on Evans and Martin to claim second place by 4 tenths of a second. Ogier and Landais won the rally by 27.5 seconds and also won the Power Stage by 2.1 seconds, meaning they lead the championship by 3 points over Neuville and Wydaeghe.

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

WRC-2 Rally2

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

WRC-3 Rally3

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

Notes

References

External links

*
2023 Rally Mexico
at eWRC-results.com
2023 Rally Mexico
at rally-maps.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Rally Mexico, 2023 2023 in Mexican motorsport

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

March 2023 sports events in Mexico

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...