Mexico WRC: Latvala continues to dominate, Mikkelsen out

Latvala's lead, as such, has risen to 1m36.3s over Sebastien Ogier as a result, the Frenchman insisting, admittedly, that he is not fighting for the win anymore.

"The fight is out, all I can do now is finish the rally," said Ogier. "There's nothing more for me to get now. Tomorrow, of course, I'm going to push for the Power Stage points."

Dani Sordo continued to produce consistent performances and his overall third place was cemented when Andreas Mikkelsen went off the road and retired in SS15.

M-Sport driver Mads Ostberg and Hyundai's Hayden Paddon both moved up to fourth and fifth as a result, separated by almost a minute.

Dmack's Ott Tanak and privateer Martin Prokop held sixth and seventh respectively, with only the top seven now within less than 10 minutes behind Latvala.

Lorenzo Bertelli, dominant WRC2 leader Teemu Suninen and Valeriy Gorban on the the old Mini Cooper WRC machine completed the top 10.

There are now five stages to go in Rally Mexico, with three short super-special runs on Saturday evening followed by the mammoth 80km Guanajuato and the 16km Power Stage on Sunday.

Standings after SS16:

Pos.	Driver / Co-Driver	Car	Time/Delay
1	Jari-Matti Latvala  Miikka Anttila	VW	3h22m44.8s
2	Sebastien Ogier  Julien Ingrassia	VW	1m36.3s
3	Dani Sordo  Marc Marti	Hyundai	2m41.6s
4	Mads Ostberg  Ola Floene	Ford	4m46.3s
5	Hayden Paddon  John Kennard	Hyundai	5m41.5s
6	Ott Tanak  Raigo Molder	Ford	7m47.1s
7	Martin Prokop  Jan Tomanek	Ford	9m21.8s
8	Lorenzo Bertelli  Simone Scattolin	Ford	10m17.4s
9	Teemu Suninen  Mikko Markkula	Skoda	12m20.6s
10	Valeriy Gorban Volodymyr Korsia	Mini	27m38.1s