Rally Mexico goes in the favour for the two-time Rally Mexico winner Pontus Tidemand as after the first full-day he leads the WRC2 class and is the fastest driver of all the R5 cars.
Now after half of the rally has been completed, Tidemand and his co-driver Patrik Barth have been brilliant from the start. Already on the opening-stage on the streets of Guanajuato, he grabbed the lead but was behind Oliver Solberg who was the leader in WRC3 class.
On Friday, he went to be the leading R5 car as Solberg had to retire due to mechnical failure. He never lost his top spot after that and continued to pull away from the drivers behind.
“We decided to drive the first two stages on hard tires to save on the soft for the rest of the weekend. But we got off to a good start, we lost about 30-40 seconds in the first stage of the morning when we caught up with Ole Christian (Veiby) who had problems, but we did what we could to get back as much time as we could as quickly as possible,” Tidemand said.
“It has been a really good day for us. The car works perfectly and we have been driving hard, but on the right side of the border. We have a 51-second lead and it feels good, but everything can happen here in Mexico and the rally is long so we must continue to be smart tomorrow too.”
