The third round of the FIA World Rally Championship got underway last night in spectacular style, the opening ceremony and street stage in Guanajuato one of the highlights of the season. Thierry Neuville took the stage win on the short 1.09 kilometre stage in the UNESCO World Heritage designated city, but Ogier took the lead after the following two super special stages en route back to the overnight halt in Leon.

Today, however, the crews headed into the mountains for the first proper gravel stages of the event, and this is where Latvala started to open up his advantage. Running eighth on the road, the Finn was able to benefit from cleaner roads and stage wins in the opening 54.21 kilometre stage and the following 15.36 kilometre test gave him a healthy lead. With a small advantage last night, Ogier coped well this morning running first on the road, minimising the time loss and he heads Sordo, who has not been entirely happy with the set-up of the i20 WRC this morning. Andreas Mikkelsen, fourth, made a couple of mistakes in the long opening stage but bounced back to take the stage win in the Leon Street Stage before the mid-day service. Mads Østberg was on completely the wrong tyres this morning and lost over a minute in the first stage alone. He is nearly 90 seconds adrift of the lead and narrowly ahead of Hayden Paddon, who dropped behind the Norwegian in the second stage when he clipped a wall. Ott Tanak is seventh with WRC returnee Martin Prokop eighth in his first event back in the Championship this season. Lorenzo Bertelli is ninth and Nicolas Fuchs rounds off the top 10, the Peruvian also heading the FIA WRC 2 Championship category in his Skoda Fabia R5. Like in Sweden, Michel Fabre is the sole contender in the FIA WRC 3 Championship category and the Frenchman continues his Mexican challenge in 20th overall.

Early casualties in the event include Thierry Neuville who hit a bank in the opening stage and broke the suspension arm, and local hero Benito Guerra, the Mexican also damaging the suspension on his Fiesta. Eric Camilli lost a huge amount of time in the first stage with a puncture and is over six minutes adrift of the frontrunners.