The Thursday action was heavily influenced by watersplashes in the final kilometers of the stage, as the great deal of water than ran into the front end of Hirvonen's Focus blocked the intercooler and caused some problems within the cooling system. Additionally, the Finn also experienced some clutch problems that added to his struggle.
“It hasn't been the best of mornings. We were diving into the deep water and the water pushed the cooling package into the wrong position. And then on one run we had a small problem with the clutch which didn't help me when I was trying to do one proper run,” said Hirvonen, according to Autosport.
As his run was the first of the day, the other competitors that completed the shakedown experienced a slightly cleaner road. Consequently, the latest runners scored better times, with Petter Solberg topping the timing reports ahead of Dani Sordo and Sebastien Ogier.
“There's a first-gear corner immediately after the water splash, and the fact that I was braking for that didn't help the angle of the car. The water flooded into the ducting and broke everything. This is the worst water splash we've found on the recce, so it shouldn't be a big issue for the rally,” warned Sordo about the watersplash, which was the result of heavy rain through the last couple of weeks in Mexico.
“I went over it normally, as I had done in the past, but with more water the force broke the cooling package. Normally the water keeps the front of the car up when you go over it fast, but it didn't happen this time. We have never had a problem like this with the Focus. I'm going to have to take it more carefully on the rally,” added Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala, who scored only the 10th time of the day.
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