Mexico : Citroen Sport - ShakedownAfter the two recent wintry fixtures in Scandinavia, the World Rally Championship fraternity moved on from the freezing temperatures of Sweden and Norway to much warmer weather in Mexico. For the fourth year in a row, Rally Mexico is the
first of the season's gravel rounds which make up the majority of the WRC calendar.
Although the action begins in earnest tomorrow, Citroën Sport's
Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena and Dani Sordo/Marc Martí had a chance to find their marks on the loose thanks to the traditional pre-start shakedown test which took place on Thursday morning (between 8alm and 12 noon) on a 5.13km stage located some 15km east of the service park in León's Poliforum exhibition centre.
After their first few runs, both Citroën C4 WRC crews reported that they were pleased with the handling of their respective cars.
"The shakedown stage offered a good cross-section of what we can expect during the weekend," said the three-time World Champion. "There was a little bit of everything, ranging from the fast portion at the beginning to the narrower section towards the end. It didn't take me long to feel happy with the balance of my car."
Loeb's comments were echoed by his Spanish team-mate.
"My first run in anger with the new Citroën went very well. I began cautiously before progressively upping my pace and the morning went very well. It's so nice to be back on the loose. I am much happier on gravel than I was on the last two events…."
The team focused on fine-tuning and comparing different set-up options with a view to matching the two C4 WRCs as closely as possible to the Mexican terrain. Their work seems to have pay dividends since the two Citroën drivers posted the morning's top two times.
The fourth round of the 2007 World Rally Championship gets underway this evening with a ceremonial start in the Unesco World Heritage-listed town of Guanajuato. The first leg kicks off tomorrow (Friday) with SS1 (Alfaro) which is scheduled to start at 8.28am.
Citroen Sport
