Mexico WRC: Meeke claims lead as drivers struggle with overheating

Following the start of the rally on Thursday evening, Friday's morning leg was cancelled after a road accident prevented to field to make it to the start in time.

As a result, the El Chocolate and Las Minas stages were only used once in the afternoon, which became the only two long runs of the day.

It was Meeke, who only collected two points in the first two rallies of the 2017 season and was consequently 10th in the running order, setting the pace in the 54 km El Chocolate stage, going seven seconds quicker than Sebastien Ogier.

While he stalled his car twice and was only fourth in the following SS5, won by Thierry Neuville, Meeke completed the two stages with a 15.7s advantage over Ogier.

The Citroen driver was one of few not suffering from overheating woes during the two runs, as most of the others complained about either engine temperature or a too hot differential.

Toyota duo Jari-Matti Latvala and Juho Hanninen, Citroen's Stephane Lefebvre, along with the Fords of Ott Tanak, Elfyn Evans both lost over a minute in the 54km El Chocolate stage.

Ogier also had engine alarms throughout the test but managed to set a competitive time and sits second overall, followed by the Hyundai trio of Hayden Paddon, Dani Sordo and Neuville, separated by just four seconds.

Hanninen, who was first following the two Thursday super specials, dropped to sixth, closely followed by Tanak.

Lefebvre is nearly two minutes adrift in eighth, with Latvala becoming the biggest loser of the overheating issues, having lost further 48 seconds in SS5.

Rally Mexico's Friday programme will conclude with a street stage in Guanajuato and two super specials at Autodromo de Leon.