With the WRC field tackling the first underground stage in the championship's modern history yesterday night, Rally Mexico's superspecial stage benefited from the presence of a huge crowd on the streets of the aforementioned town, as it was ran on a brand new 1.05-kilometre street course.
“There are so many people, it's crazy,” said an enthusiastic Solberg after scoring the best time of 53.2 seconds. “This is what we need for the sport and even if it's a short stage, it makes the crowd crazy. It's very, very tricky. In the tunnel I just about hit the wall, just with the rim.”
Needless to say, all the frontrunners completed the superspecial stage in less than a minute, with Citroen duo Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier crossing the finish line within half of second from Solberg (0.2 and 0.5 seconds behind, respectively).
Ford put both its drivers inside the Top 5, with Jari-Matti Latvala coming 4th overall (1.2 seconds behind Solberg) 0.4 secs ahead of teammate Mikko Hirvonen. Following the Finn on the timing reports was Munchi's Federico Villagra.
Ford's satellite team Stobart monopolized the following three positions, with newcomer Evgeny Novikov sandwiched between Matthew Wilson and Mads Ostberg. Finally, the Top 10 was completed by another Ford driver, Barwa's Nasser Al-Attiyah.
The only important misfortune of the day came from Ken Block, whose car was hit by mechanical problems just before the start of the stage. Starting first thing Friday morning, the WRC pack will hit the gravely roads of Mexico from Alfaro, with the Guanajuato street stage returning to spice things up at the end of both Friday and Saturday running.
Google News