Mexico : The shakedownThe actual start of the Rally Mexico will be given tomorrow Friday, but this morning, as usual, the contenders were reunited for the shakedown - the last tuning session before hostilities begin.
The 4.95 km track on which the shakedown was
laid out is situated about fifteen kilometers east of León. Because of this, the teams did not have to deploy any structures in order to set up a specific workpark since the drivers return to the Polifurum de León – where the rally's strategic nerve center is located – after each passage.
As for the weather, the sky was covered by clouds which sometimes let through a timid sun. Rain was out of the question and the drivers dealt with a dry and particularly dusty track. Notwithstanding the altitude, temperatures hovered around 25° Celsius.
For his first turn at the wheel on dry land with the C4 WRC, Dani Sordo achieved the best time of the session. He is ahead of his team-mate
Sebastien Loeb by six tenths of a second, therefore the Citroën drivers hit the double this Thursday morning.
It was also first time on the dry for the new Impreza WRC, and Petter Solberg reassures himself by making the third best time. Again, we have a two-car follow-up since in Petter Solberg's wake we find Chris Atkinson's Impreza.
As for Marcus Grönholm, he brought his Ford into fifth place just ahead of another Focus, that of the Stobart team's spearhead Henning Solberg.
At the end of the shakedown, the contenders abandoned their cars to their mechanics, only to reunite with them again this evening ŕ 7:00 PM for the starting ceremony which is organised at Guanajuato. A ceremony during which the drivers will unravel in the reverse sequence of their numbers, the first car passing on the podium at 7:30 PM.
Daniel BASTIEN (c) CAPSIS International
