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| 2008 Rally Mexico : WRC Round 3 of 15 : 29th February - 2nd March In this issue: Leg 1 Unofficial Leaderboard Leg 1 News Leg 1 Team by Team News Remaining Event Schedule 1. Unofficial Leaderboard 1. J-M Latvala/M Anttila FIN Ford Focus RS 1hr 23min 38.6sec 2. S Loeb/D Elena FRA Citroen C4 1hr 23min 48.2sec 3. C Atkinson/S Prévot AUS Subaru Impreza 1hr 24min 01.0sec 4. P Solberg/P Mills NOR Subaru Impreza 1hr 24min 40.5sec 5. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS 1hr 24min 49.2sec 6. H Solberg/C Menkerud NOR Ford Focus RS 1hr 26min 22.2sec 7. M Wilson/S Martin GBR Ford Focus RS 1hr 26min 31.5sec 8. F Villagra/J Perez Companc ARG Ford Focus RS 1hr 29min 08.6sec 9. R Trivino/C Salom MEX Peugeot 206 1hr 31min 57.2sec 10 S Ogier/J Ingrassia FRA Citroen C2 1hr 32min 51.6sec 2. Leg News Huge crowds packed the narrow streets of Guanajuato last night for the spectacular start ceremony of this third round of the championship and opening gravel event of the year. Music and dancing groups entertained the spectators before the 39 starters threaded their way through tens of thousands of fans as they made their way from this beautiful city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to the rally's León base. The action began in earnest today as competitors tackled two identical loops of three speed tests, before two passes over a super special stage at León's race circuit – a total of 135.74km of competition. The rally is the highest of the season, today's action climbing to 2737m on hillsides awash with cacti and only briefly dipping below 2000m. The altitude took its toll on cars as the thinner air caused engines to 'run out of breath' and lose more than 25 per cent of their usual power. The region has been blessed by dry and hot weather for some time, leaving a coating of loose stones on the surface of the gravel tracks above the city. Hirvonen and Latvala were the first two cars in the start order and as a result they endured the worst of the slippery conditions on the opening loop, sweeping the stones away to leave a cleaner and faster driving line for those behind. However, it failed to slow Latvala who stamped his authority on the event by winning the opening special stage. He completed the opening loop with a 4.4sec lead over Sébastien Loeb, before two more stage wins on cleaner roads this afternoon extended his advantage over the world champion. After pre-event dramas yesterday when Sébastien Loeb's (Citroen) engine was changed before later being reinstalled, the Frenchman emerged as Latvala's closest challenger. He won three stages and is 12.8sec ahead of Chris Atkinson (Subaru), whose only concerns were a launch control difficulty this morning and a faulty intercom this afternoon. Team-mate Petter Solberg dropped 40sec this morning with brake problems but won two stages to lie fourth, 8.7sec ahead of Hirvonen. Henning Solberg (Ford) is sixth, despite hitting a rock on the second stage and bending his car's rear left suspension. He lost almost two minutes. Gigi Galli (Ford) slid into a ditch on stage three and dropped 90sec when lying fourth, before the Stobart driver retired on the next stage after hitting a rock and breaking a steering arm. He will not restart due to a damaged roll cage. Dani Sordo (Citroen) retired on the opening test with broken front left suspension after hitting a rock. Toni Gardemeister (Suzuki) lost more than 18min after limping through the morning with intermittent throttle response, before retiring in stage four with an engine problem. Team-mate Per-Gunnar Andersson retired from sixth in the mid-leg service with a similar problem and neither will restart tomorrow. The second day follows a similar format with two identical loops of three stages north and east of León, split by service back in the city. The day ends with two more tests at the city's super special stage. After a 07.30 start, competitors face 157.32km of competition before the 18.01 finish. 4. Team by Team News BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila produced a performance as blistering as the Mexican weather to lead throughout the opening day of Rally Mexico today. Twenty-two-year-old Latvala, who became the youngest driver in history to win a round of the FIA World Rally Championship earlier this month, led from the opening kilometre in his Ford Focus RS World Rally Car to build a 9.6sec overnight advantage. Team-mates and drivers' championship leaders Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen lie fifth in another Focus RS after the first of three days of tough gravel speed tests east of León, high in the hills of central Mexico. The Finns had the worst of the slippery road conditions this morning and a puncture this afternoon cost 40sec as they ended the day 1min 10.6sec behind their fellow countrymen. #3 : Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen: Hirvonen was fifth on all three morning tests to hold fourth, 18.7sec behind his team-mate. However, a slow puncture on this afternoon's middle stage cost 40sec and one place. "I don't know what I hit but I slid wide in a couple of corners towards some stones so maybe that was the cause," he said. "There was a crack in the wheel rim and slowly the tyre lost air before coming off the rim completely with about 3km to go. It was a slow puncture so I decided not to stop to change it and drove for about 15km like that. It was the right decision. "It's annoying when your young team-mate is beating you, and it wasn't the car or my road position that was the reason why Jari-Matti is so far ahead of me. He's driven very well. The time gap between myself and Loeb is what I expected but the difference to Jari-Matti is far more than I thought. I need to find more speed tomorrow. This morning's conditions were as I expected. It was difficult in the braking areas and the loose gravel meant there was no traction accelerating out of the bends," he said. #4 : Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila: "I started with plenty of confidence after Sweden and felt relaxed," he said. "It's a big surprise for me to lead because my pre-event target was to look for a podium. It's more than I expected or dreamed about. I kept a good pace all day and the whole package has worked well – car, driver, co-driver and tyres. I had some big impacts on stones this morning but Pirelli's tyres stood up well. "It will be interesting to be first in the start order tomorrow on the gravely roads, but I was second today and there's not such a big difference. I don't want to think about it too much, I just want to get into the car and see what happens. The plan is to drive in the same way as I did on the slippery roads this morning. The stages are tricky so I need to find the same relaxed feeling," he said. Citroen Total World Rally Team http://citroen.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=1 At the end of the first day of the 2008 Rally Mexico, Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena are currently second overall with their Citroën C4 WRC, 9.6 seconds behind the provisional leader. Their team-mates Dani Sordo/Marc Martí were unfortunately sidelined this morning after a wishbone broke when they hit a rock on SS1 (Alfaro), but they will line up for Saturday's re-start under the SupeRally ruling. #1 : Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena: "After our misadventure with the engine of Sébastien et Daniel yesterday, today's blow took a little time to sink in," said Olivier Quesnel. "Even so, everyone at Citroën Sport soon snapped back into action to get Dani and Marc back running. Meanwhile, Sébastien and Daniel claimed the fastest time on SS2 and SS3 to move closer to top spot and that was an excellent boost for everyone's morale; there was still plenty of fight left in us!" "I had a bit of trouble settling in during the morning's loop," commented Sébastien Loeb. "The stages hadn't been swept sufficiently clean by the drivers ahead of us on the road and the grip available with our hard compound Pirelli Scorpion tyres wasn't ideal. We tried to counter that by making a small change to our set-up before the start of SS2, which paid off. We managed to close to within 4.4s of the lead and we kept to the same rhythm this afternoon to maintain the gap at less than 10 seconds. We will work a little more on the set-up during this evening's service halt with the intention of pushing hard again tomorrow." #2 : Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti: The day got off to a complex start for Citroën Sport as news broke that the C4 WRC of Dani Sordo and Marc Martí was parked up just kilometres after the start of SS1. "I don't know what happened," reported Dani back at service in the Poliforum exhibition centre. "I was keeping to the line made by previous competitors through a left-hand corner, but there must have been a rock because the wishbone broke. It's bitterly disappointing. Up to that point, we had found a good pace and our split times were looking good." The Spaniards will rejoin the competition tomorrow morning under the SupeRally ruling. Subaru World Rally Team http://subaru.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=5 The Subaru World Rally Team entries of Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot and Petter Solberg/Phil Mills finished the first day of the season’s first gravel rally in third and fourth positions overall after tackling the harsh and unforgiving routes and oxygen-thin air of the Mexican mountains. The rally on which Subaru has traditionally been strong started in characteristic form as Solberg and Atkinson held the top two spots after Thursday’s shakedown stage. On the first day of gravel-based competition of the season, Atkinson and Prevot held a consistent third position overall. Solberg and Mills experienced early brake troubles that slipped them to sixth, but the duo had a solid afternoon to climb to fourth with two stage wins. Solberg started the day fifth on the road and had a promising start being fastest in the opening section of the first stage. In the last five kilometres however he struck an obstacle in the road, damaging the front end of his car, and, in an unrelated incident, experienced problems with his rear left brakes. This resulted in a loss of braking efficiency for the remainder of the morning until the problem could be rectified at the midday service. The Norwegian lost a total of 50 seconds over the course of the morning’s three stages and dropped to sixth position overall. Having sorted the problem during the half-hour service interval, Solberg and Mills mimicked their early performance by recording the fastest time on the afternoon’s first speed test. As Ford’s Gigi Galli and Mikko Hirvonen suffered troubles of their own, the SWRT duo climbed to fourth by the end of the day, beating Hirvonen and recording their second stage win in the penultimate head-to-head spectator stage that brought the day to a close. #5 : Petter Solberg/Phil Mills: “Considering we lost a minute this morning, fourth today is not bad” said Petter Solberg. “We have won two stages, and we are pushing so hard but it will not be easy. We have two tough days left. The rocks in the stages this afternoon were incredible, just right in the middle of the road. They were so big, I don’t know how they got there. If I didn’t go off the road to avoid them, that would have been it. When you’re going flat out, it’s hard to avoid things like that but you still just have to commit.” #6 : Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot: Atkinson meanwhile started just behind his team-mate in sixth on the road. The Australian had a consistent day in third position overall, despite driving one of day’s tricky and rocky stages with a malfunctioning intercom, meaning that he couldn’t hear Stephane Prevot’s pace notes and had to drive from memory. He didn’t feel quite as comfortable with the car as he did during yesterday’s shakedown route, but nevertheless recorded five top-three times from today’s eight stages. On the final back-to-back spectator stage, Atkinson beat rival Henning Solberg after the first lap but suffered a spin and a stall on the second lap, losing a few seconds. “Today has not been bad for us and we’re in a good position to push hard tomorrow. We’ll have to see whether we can close the gap to Sebastien and Jari-Matti as it won’t be easy” said Chris Atkinson. “It was my mistake to spin in the final stage, and giving a few seconds away to these guys isn’t the smartest, but that’s how it goes. It won’t be easy for sure, and I have Petter and Hirvonen behind so we will push hard as always and see.” Stobart VK M-Sport Ford World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 The Stobart VK M-Sport Ford rally team have finished day 1 of Rally Mexico – round three of the FIA World Rally Championship – with mixed fortunes as Brits Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin lead the way for the team in seventh position overall. Unfortunately team-mates Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini were not so fortunate, having to retire from the event with minor rollcage damage. It was a cruel blow for the Italian pair who were in third place after the opening 23 kilometre test. Twenty-one-year-old Wilson showed exceptional pace over the day with several of his spilt times matching those of the day’s fastest drivers. Despite losing almost a minute after being caught in the dust of fellow WRC competitor Toni Gardemeister the youngster held his top-eight position throughout the day. Galli retired on stage 4 after running wide on a fast left-hand bend, breaking the trailing arm on his Stobart Ford Focus RS WRC07. The pair tried desperately to repair the damage in the stage but after a lengthy period the decision was made to retire for the day. The broken trailing arm however caused sight damage to the rear section of the rollcage and a decision was made by the FIA and the team to retire the car from the event from a safety point of view. It was an unfortunate end to Galli’s first gravel event with the Stobart team after two great opening rounds this season in Monte-Carlo and Sweden. #8 : Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini: “I am very disappointed with what happened on stage 4 today and the fact we have retired from the event. It was the first corner and I came flat in third gear and the car slid too wide and we banged into a rock. We tried to fix the problem on the stage but ended up losing too much time and had to retire. It was just so silly because everything was feeling good and it was so unlucky that we hit the rock because I felt like I was set up well for the fast left-hand corner. The first two stages today were very good and I actually didn’t really expect to get such good times because we were taking no risks and just driving sensibly and everything, the car, tyres and setup, was all perfect. I had a slight problem with a pacenote on stage 3 and we spun into a ditch and were stuck for a while as there were only four spectators to help us out there. It is a shame I only got to drive about 60 kilometres on gravel and with the new tyres but the experience will help me when we go to Argentina for the next round.” #16 : Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin: “The speed this morning was very good for us despite being held up in Toni’s dust on stage 2 where we lost around 50 seconds. The first two in the afternoon weren’t the best for me because the roads had cleared up which offered more grip that I didn’t quite use to full effect. The final proper stage before the super specials was really good though and had if it not been for a couple of silly little mistakes we would have been well under a second a kilometre off the fastest guys. This was a good way to finish the day as we head into tomorrow which I know will be another challenging leg. We had a small problem with the ignition coil at the end of the final super special but my mechanics did a super job in flexi service to bring the Focus back as good as new for tomorrow.” Suzuki World Rally Team http://suzuki.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=12 Both Suzuki SX4 WRCs have been forced to retire from the all-gravel Rally Mexico, after a tough day that took its toll on the engines. P-G Andersson had a promising run through the first three stages of the all-gravel event, setting top-eight times on all of them, but then he noticed a loss of power on the way back to service in Leon. The car made it back, but it was decided that he would not restart so that the engine could be returned to the factory for analysis. Toni Gardemeister also had engine problems through the opening loop of stages, with intermittent throttle response. He started SS4 in the afternoon, but stopped a few kilometres into the stage. The Finn, contesting his 100th world rally in Mexico, was also forced into retirement. The engines of both cars will be flown back to Japan for detailed examination. #11 : Toni Gardemeister/Tomi Tuominen: "Unfortunately my 100th rally has been memorable for the wrong reasons! We didn't really get a chance to show what we were capable of today as from the first stage the engine was down on power and we just had to try and get through the opening loop. It was a strange problem as sometimes there was power and other times there wasn't. I've got every confidence that the team will find out what the problem is; we have to remember that the car is still very new, and we have a lot of work to do." #12 : Per-Gunnar Andersson/Jonas Andersson: "The fact that we were sixth when we stopped just goes to show the potential of the whole SX4 WRC package. We had a very good run through the morning's stages, although the suspension set-up was a little too hard. Considering that we had no testing before the event, I think it was really good. Unfortunately we then had an engine problem, and this is something that we need to sort out. Once that is done though, we will be in a good position. I'm quite confident that we could have taken points here." Munchi's Ford World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 Henning Solberg, Munchi's WRT, is in a podium position after the first day's rallying. And Villagra in fifth, Munchi's couldn't have asked for much more in Rally Mexico. #9 : Federico Villagra/J. Perez Companc: “All is okay. We are still discovering the rally but having a lot of fun! The stages are very nice.” #14 : Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud: “The afternoon has been okay. My times are not so bad but I could have done better if there hadn’t been so much dust in the car.” 5. Remaing Event Schedule Saturday 1 March: Day 2 León - León Serv C León Poliforum (15 mins) 07.30 SS9 Ibarrilla 1 29.90km 08.24 SS10 Duarte 1 23.27km 09.47 SS11 Derramadero 1 23.28km 10.38 Serv D León Poliforum (30 mins) 12.03 SS12 Ibarrilla 2 29.90km 13.12 SS13 Duarte 2 23.27km 14.35 SS14 Derramadero 2 23.28km 15.26 SS15 Super Special 3 2.21km 16.41 SS16 Super Special 4 2.21km 16.46 Serv E León Poliforum (45 mins) 17.16 Finish León 18.01 Sunday 2 March: Day 3 León - León Serv F León Poliforum (15 mins) 07.45 SS17 León 16.09km 08.28 SS18 Guanajuatito 22.30km 08.56 SS19 Comanjilla 17.88km 10.19 SS20 Super Special 5 4.42km 11.34 Serv G León Poliforum (10 mins) 12.07 Finish León 13.00 |