WRC: Reigning champion comes back to the victories in Mexico

Sebastien Loeb dominated the second round of the 2011 WRC Championship to win the fifth Rally of Mexico of his career. The Frenchman got a comfortable win after his team-mate Sebastien Ogier crashed out on the final leg.

The two official Citroëns were the clear dominants in Mexico, with Ogier leading most of day one, except for a brief period when Loeb managed to get ahead.

On Saturday it was time for Loeb to charge and to take the lead, with Ogier loosing a little time as he was leading the way on the road. Then Loeb got a 50-second penalty for being late into SS15 as he had to fix a gearshift issue before the stage start and everything was turned around.

Ogier was back in the lead but he was lucky not to have been penalized as well as he accidentally drove into service before the rescheduled regroup on Friday lunchtime. The incident was examined in two stewards' meeting.

While Oggier suffered a temporary loss of power, Loeb was again closing in on his team-mate. The world champion then recovered the command of the rally when went off on Sunday's first stage and damaged his Citroen too badly to continue.

Until the end of the rally, Loeb just had to cruise to the finish, with a lead of 1 minute and 38 seconds over Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen. Loeb won his 63rd WRC rally of the career and got underway with his 2011 title bid.

"That was a very hard weekend, a terrible fight with Ogier until today," said Loeb. "He was really, really pushing hard. I think we've done nearly a perfect weekend, some small troubles but not many for a new car. I'm satisfied with the performance - the DS3 is very fast," said Loeb.

The podium was completed by Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala, who had a tough event. While Hirvonen dropped back as he ran first on the road on Friday and also lost time on the second leg although he had a better road position, Latvala was delayed by two punctures. Still Hirvonen retains the championship as he also grabbed the bonus points for winning the rally-ending power stage.