Rally Mexico 2007

 Rally Mexico 2007

Racing data
4th of 16 races in the 2007 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Mexico
Date:	9-11 March 2007
Begin:	Leon
Exams:	20 tests over 366.06 km
Distance:	849.55 km
Covering:	gravel
Podium
First:	Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total World Rally Team
Second:	Marcus Grönholm Ford World Rally Team
Third:	Mikko Hirvonen Ford World Rally Team

The 4th Mexico Rally was the fourth of 16 FIA World Championship races in 2007. The rally consisted of 20 special stages and was held between March 9th and 11th.

Race report

On Friday afternoon, Citroën driver Sébastien Loeb took the lead when Petter Solberg (Subaru) had to retire. After that, Loeb could not be denied victory and extended the lead to around one minute. Loeb was able to control the action and drive towards his 30th victory in a world championship run.

Ford works driver Marcus Grönholm drove into second place . He messed up Friday with the wrong set-up and started a race to catch up on Saturday that brought him up to second place. However, Grönholm soon gave up the hope of still being able to win, as Loeb already had too much advantage. Grönholm remained leader in the world championship with four points ahead of Loeb. In the manufacturers' championship, Ford kept first place ahead of Citroën .

At the beginning of the last day, three other drivers had the chance to get on the podium. Dani Sordo (Citroën) started the rally in third place overall on Sunday, followed by Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) and Chris Atkinson (Subaru). Hirvonen pushed Sordo out of third place in the first special stage on Sunday and kept the podium right through to the finish. Sordo had to be content with fourth place ahead of Atkinson, but scored important points for Citroën in the manufacturers' championship.

Classifications

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
1	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 48: 13.3		10
2	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 49: 09.1	00: 55.8	8th
3	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 49: 41.0	01: 27.7	6th
4th	Daniel Sordo	Marc Marti	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 49: 57.0	01: 43.7	5
5	Chris Atkinson	Glenn McNeall	Subaru Impreza WRC	3: 50: 37.4	02: 24.1	4th
6th	Manfred Stohl	Ilka Minor	Citroën Xsara WRC	3: 51: 58.8	03: 45.5	3
7th	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 52: 24.1	04: 10.8	2
8th	Matthew Wilson	Michael Orr	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 00: 35.9	12: 22.6	1
PCWRC
1 (10)	Mark Higgins	Scott Martin	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 08: 44.5	20: 31.2	10
2 (11)	Toshi Arai	Tony Sircombe	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 10: 05.4	21: 52.1	8th
3 (13)	Kristian Sohlberg	Risto Pietiläinen	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 11: 15.2	23: 01.9	6th
4 (14)	Mirco Baldacci	Giovanni Agnese	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 12: 51.9	24: 38.6	5
5 (15)	Travis Pastrana	Christian Edstrom	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 16: 53.2	28: 39.9	4th
6 (16)	Štěpán Vojtěch	Michal Ernst	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 25: 43.3	37: 30.0	3
7 (18)	Fumio Nutahara	Daniel Barritt	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 26: 02.5	37: 49.2	2
8 (20)	Spyros Pavlides	Denis Giraudet	Subaru Impreza WRX STIi	4: 34: 23.7	46: 10.4	1

Special stages

Day	WP number	Start CET	WP name	length	driver	automobile	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 March 9th	WP1	08:28	Alfaro 1	23.50 km	Petter Solberg	Subaru Impreza WRC	14: 03.5	100.3 km / h	Petter Solberg
	WP2	09:51	Ortega 1	29.65 km	Petter Solberg	Subaru Impreza WRC	17: 28.7	101.78 km / h
	WP3	10:34	El Cubilete 1	17.87 km	Petter Solberg	Subaru Impreza WRC	9: 45.6	109.86 km / h
	WP4	13:02	Alfaro 2	23.50 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	13: 47.0	102.3 km / h
	WP5	14:25	Ortega 2	29.65 km	Manfred Stohl	Citroën Xsara WRC	16: 58.2	104.83 km / h
	WP6	15:08	El Cubilete 2	17.87 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	9: 37.5	111.4 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
	WP7	16:29	Super special 1	2.21 km	Finland Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	1: 42.6	77.54 km / h
	WP8	16:33	Super special 2	2.21 km	Chris Atkinson	Subaru Impreza WRC	1: 42.0	78.0 km / h
Day 2 March 10th	WP9	08:19	Ibarilla 1	30.20 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	18: 17.3	99.08 km / h
	WP10	09:42	Duarte 1	23.51 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	17: 55.0	78.73 km / h
	WP11	10:33	Derramadero 1	23.27 km	Finland Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	14: 01.6	99.54 km / h
	WP12	13:07	Ibarilla 2	30.20 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	18: 02.6	100.42 km / h
	WP13	14:30	Duarte 2	23.51 km	Finland Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	17: 32.2	80.48 km / h
	WP14	15:21	Derramadero 2	23.27 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	13: 49.4	101.0 km / h
	WP15	16:35	Super special 3	2.21 km	Daniel Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	1: 44.6	76.06 km / h
	WP16	16:39	Super special 4	2.21 km	Finland Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	1: 43.6	76.8 km / h
Day 3 March 11th	WP17	08:23	Leon	16.29 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	10: 35.8	92.24 km / h
	WP18	8:54 am	Guanajuatito	23.34 km	Finland Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	15: 12.3	92.1 km / h
	WP19	10:17	Comanjilla	18.10 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	10: 17.6	105.51 km / h
	WP20	11:28	Super special 5	4.42 km	Finland Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 23.6	78.15 km / h

Source:

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: Loeb wins Rally Mexico , accessed on December 23, 2015
2. ↑ ewrc-results.com: 4th Corona Rally Mexico 2007 , accessed on December 23, 2015

Web links

Commons : World Rally Championship 2007  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website