Winner of the Monte-Carlo rally on Sunday, Sébastien Ogier has announced that his next rally will be Mexico, in March.
Sébastien Ogier will not stay away from the WRC for long. This season, like the previous one, the French driver decided to contest the World Rally Championship half-time, and after winning the Monte-Carlo Championship for the ninth time in his career (a record), the question was know when we would see him again behind the wheel of the Toyota. He brought the answer this Tuesday at the microphone of Canal+. It will be in Mexico! The 39-year-old Gapençais will leave the car with Takamoto Katsuta for the next rally, in Sweden from February 9 to 12, but he will be there for the third round of the season, in Mexico from March 16 to 19. “It’s not really a secret to announce that I will be in Mexico, a rally that I have always enjoyed. It’s a choice as obvious on my side as on that of the team because I was often successful there, ”says Sébastien Ogier in a video. He has indeed won in Mexico six times, in 2013, 2014 and 2015 with Volkswagen, in 2018 with Ford, in 2019 with Citroën and in 2020 with Toyota. The Mexican event is also the one he has won the most, after the Monte-Carlo rally, and he is the co-record holder of victories with Sébastien Loeb.
A rally at more than 2000m altitude
For the past two years, Rally Mexico has not been on the WRC calendar, but it is making a comeback this year. In 2022, it was in Portugal, in May, that Sébastien Ogier contested his second rally of the season. This year, we will therefore see him again in March, on the occasion of the first gravel rally of the season, in the region of Leon. An event which will mark the highest point of the season (2737m above sea level), and which should put the engines to the test. Will the Toyota be as reliable as last weekend on the icy roads of “Monte-Carle”? Answer in less than two months!