FRIDAY IN MEXICO: TIDEMAND UNBEATABLE IN WRC 2

Pontus Tidemand completed a stunning clean sweep of speed test wins to open a comfortable lead in WRC 2 at Rally Guanajuato Mexico on Friday.

The Swede, driving a Skoda Fabia, held a slender three-tenths advantage over Ole Christian Veiby after Thursday night’s spectacular opening two special stages through Guanajuato’s mining tunnels.

As the action switched to gravel mountain roads on Friday, Tidemand showed the pace which carried him to the 2017 category world title. Four fastest times in the opening loop stretched his lead to 23.4sec over Russia’s Nikolay Gryazin.

Tidemand continued his imperious form over a mix of repeated tests and short-fan favourite special stages to extend his advantage to 51.1sec, having won all 11 tests to date.

For Gryazin, it was a hugely satisfactory day. The Russian is making his debut in Mexico and enjoyed a troublefree run in his Hyundai i20.

Veiby suffered an early blow when brake problems slowed the Norwegian’s i20 through the morning stages. He conceded almost five minutes and eventually ended the day almost five minutes adrift of team-mate Gryazin. ผลบอล7mเมื่อคืน