World rally has arrived in Mexico, and it's been a good season so far. We've had three separate winners at the three previous rallys, and to add to the excitement of the Mexico rally, Subaru has launched their 2007 spec Impreza.
This year, Sebastien Loeb, the winner of the past two championships, has uncharacteristicly struggled. The 2007 Citroen C4 has not been the all-dominating car that the Xara was in previous years. Ford, last year's championship winning manufacturer, is again leading the manufacturer championship with two wins out of three this year, one for each of their drivers.
Petter Solberg, the 2002 world champion, has his new Subaru Impreza this race, and traditionally the Impreza has been a good car on gravel races. The Ford too is a good car on the loose surface events, especially with Marcus Gronholm at the helm.
Day 1
Marcus Gronholm started the rally as the leader in the championship, and so had to sweep the stages on the first day, a traditional gravel rally disadvantage, and because of that his team mate Miko Hirvonen is faster over these initial stages. Hemming Solberg had a flip on the first stage, damaging the car, and losing him three minutes on the very first stage. Loeb managed to beat both the Ford times, as did the other C4. Suprisingly it was the new Subaru of Petter Solberg that showed itself to be the pace-setter early on, clinching the first stage 2.9 seconds ahead of Loeb, with Chris Atkinson in the second Subaru in third, a further 3 seconds back.
Petter Solberg went on to win the next two stages. Loeb could not seem to match the Subaru's pace, but his team mate Danni Sordo was closing slowly on the second Subaru of Chris Atkinson, currently in third. The two Ford drivers seemed to struggle with having to run through the stages first, acting as glorified road sweepers, and Marcus Gronholm and Miko Hirvonen were only able to manage fifth and sixth going into afternoon service on the first day.
Article comments