Mexico: Finish line - SummaryHe was the winner last year, and
Sebastien Loeb took a second win today following Rally Mexico 2007. For this first dry road race of the season, we find a podium that the world-class drivers accustomed us to last year. Right behind Loeb appear
the two works Fords of Marcus Grönholm and Mikko Hirvonen.
Loeb therefore took his 30th WRC career win and regains second place in the driver's championship. Ford loses one point to Citroën in the constructor's championship but stays in the lead.
Second victory for Loeb in Mexico
Last year, Loeb won at Léon behind the wheel of his Xsara. This year, the World Champion granted his C4 its first laurels on the dry. It is an important victory for Citroën as it permits Guy Fréquelin's team to be confident about the new WRC's perfomance on the rough.
Dominant on the Monte Carlo asphalt, the C4 now shows that it can also be competitive on the trails. That is a reassuring conclusion to arrive at, since there are no less than four events on dry land before the summer break.
Thanks to today's success, Loeb takes over the championship's second place from Mikko Hirvonen and climbs up to only four points behind Marcus Grönholm. What is most enthusiasting about this is the fact that many teams are capable of rallying a victory.
With Loeb, the C4, and Dani Sordo, Citroën seems to have all the right ingredients for all terrain.
Ford has lined up a still-performing Focus and can count on an exceptional duo of drivers with Mikko Hirvonen who today was at equal measure with Marcus Grönholm. Subaru is finally back, as even though Petter Solberg was not capable of reaching the end of this Rally Mexico, his performances during the first stages showed the enormous potential of the new Impreza. Really a promising reunion of elements for things to come!
If Loeb did win, Dani Sordo lost no merit. Distanced on the snow of the Swedish and Norwegian rallies, Sordo was very happy to reunite with the earth of Mexico. The Spaniard did not miss this rendez-vous and ended the event in fourth place.
Two Fords on the podium
Marcus Grönholm had a difficult, frustrating rally. The Finn was slowed down by a defective temperature sensor which brought on engine power loss. As we know, lost time cannot be recuperated, and even if Marcus managed to join the battle and climb up the rankings, he knew it would be impossible to contest Loeb's looming victory.
Marcus accepted this twist of fate and even considered himself happy about the result. Indeed, second place permits him to remain at the head of the Championship and offers Ford precious points.
Once again, Malcolm Wilson's team could count on its two drivers, Mikko Hirvonen being equal to his counterpart. In competition with Dani Sordo and Chris Atkinson for a place on the podium, the young Finn commited an error yesterday – a spin – which would cost him nearly thirty seconds and prevented him from defying his team-mate for second place.
With two Focus cars on the podium, Ford did good by conceding only a single Championship point to Citroën.
Promising arrival for the new Impreza
Subaru has been awaiting this Mexican encounter for many long months, for on this event, the Japanese constructor entered its new Impreza whose mission over the next while will be to bring a long dry stetch to an end.
The Subaru team took the chance of abandoning the evolutions on the preceding version of the Impreza in order to concentrate development on the new WRC 2007. The bet paid off as their new weapon seems well-bred. Petter Solberg gave confidence to the engineers and mechanics by taking the lead of the event right from the start. Afterwards, the Norwegian would enter into a duel with
Sebastien Loeb, a duel which would unfortunately be cut short for Solberg, victim of an oil leak.
Chris Atkinson also signed good performances with the Impreza although he was not totally satisfied with it. If the Australian recognizes the improvements over the previous car, he did not believe he had the right set-up for this terrain. Subaru will have to work at fine-tuning the development of its Impreza, but the base seems good, and the team apparently on the right track.
Stohl, Latvala and Wilson in the points
Manfred Stohl reached the podium at the end of last year's Rally Mexico. The Austrian therefore had great expectations fot this year's participation, but as he was penalized by traction problems, he would not be alble to follow the rhythm of the leading men. In the end, Stohl reached sixth place and brought home three more points to OMV Kronos Citroën WRT.
Behind the Austrian's Xsara, we find three Focus cars entered by Stobart Motorsport. Jari-Matti Latvala came in seventh position ahead of Matthew Wilson and Henning Solberg.
Daniel BASTIEN © CAPSIS International
