2010 Rally México

Corona Rally México Rally Guanajuato Bicentenario
Round 2 of the 2010 World Rally Championship ← Previous event Next event →
Rally Mexico Poliforum, Léon
Host country	Mexico
Rally base	León, Mexico
Dates run	March 5 – 7, 2010
Stages	22 (354.60 km; 220.34 mi)
Stage surface	Gravel
Overall distance	884.58 km (549.65 mi)[1]
Results
Overall winner	Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total World Rally Team
Crews	30 at start, 25 at finish

The 2010 Rally México was the 23rd Rally Mexico and the second round of the 2010 World Rally Championship season. The rally took place over March 5–7, and was based in León, in the Guanajuato region of the country. The event was part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution and the 200th anniversary of its independence. The rally was also the second round of both the Production Car World Rally Championship and the Super 2000 World Rally Championship.

The stages of the rally mixed mountain peaks with flat open valleys. Due to the high altitude, engines struggle to breathe in the thin air, causing a twenty percent reduction in their output. Stage 20 of the rally — Sauz Seco — was cancelled prior to the event, on safety grounds.^[2]

Sébastien Loeb took his 55th career rally victory, leading from the end of the eleventh stage onwards.^[3] Loeb won by just over 24 seconds from another Citroën driver, Petter Solberg. Solberg had led the rally throughout the first leg, and only took second position on the final stage through the super special stage. Solberg's gain was Sébastien Ogier's loss, as the Citroën junior driver just missed out on equalling his best career result in the World Rally Championship. Solberg overturned a 0.6-second gap over the final 4.42 km (2.75 mi), taking Ogier by 1.1 seconds.

In the SWRC event, Xavier Pons took the victory after battling Martin Prokop throughout the event. In the end, the Spanish driver took victory by just seventeen seconds, as both finished inside the overall top ten, in eighth and ninth places respectively. Prokop moved into the championship lead with a second to go with his third in Sweden. Michał Kościuszko was third, but over half an hour behind Pons and Prokop, with Eyvind Brynildsen and Albert Llovera rounding out the class finishers.

In the PWRC, Armindo Araújo took victory by over three minutes from Toshi Arai. Miguel Baldoni, Benito Guerra and Gianluca Linari were the only other finishers. With Patrik Flodin absent, Araújo moved into a 15-point championship lead.

The rally also ran an event/class named "Rally America" which allowed cars legal in the similarly named but unrelated Rally America series to run on the same stages as the WRC cars. The 2010 event was notable for the participation of amateur driver Bill Caswell who drove a 1991 BMW 318i he bought for $500 over Craigslist alongside co-driver Ben Slocum to 3rd place in the class, much to the amusement of the other drivers.^[4][5]

Results

Event standings

Pos.	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time	Difference	Points
Overall
1.	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3:42:41.7	0.0	25
2.	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Citroën C4 WRC	3:43:05.9	24.2	18
3.	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Citroën C4 WRC	3:43:07.0	25.3	15
4.	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC 09	3:44:29.2	1:47.5	12
5.	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC 09	3:44:56.8	2:15.1	10
6.	Henning Solberg	Ilka Minor	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	3:45:29.7	2:48.0	8
7.	Federico Villagra	Jorge Perez Companc	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	3:52:55.1	10:13.4	6
8.	Xavier Pons	Alex Haro	Ford Fiesta S2000	4:01:26.1	18:44.4	4
9.	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Ford Fiesta S2000	4:01:43.7	19:02.0	2
10.	Armindo Araújo	Miguel Ramalho	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X	4:04:14.2	21:32.5	1
SWRC
1. (8.)	Xavier Pons	Alex Haro	Ford Fiesta S2000	4:01:26.1	0.0	25
2. (9.)	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Ford Fiesta S2000	4:01:43.7	17.6	18
3. (20.)	Michał Kościuszko	Maciek Szczepaniak	Ford Fiesta S2000	4:35:02.9	33:36.8	15
4. (21.)	Eyvind Brynildsen	Cato Menkerud	Škoda Fabia S2000	4:35:25.9	33:59.8	12
5. (22.)	Albert Llovera	Borja Rozada	Abarth Punto S2000	4:38:31.7	37:05.5	10
PWRC
1. (10.)	Armindo Araújo	Miguel Ramalho	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X	4:04:14.2	0.0	25
2. (11.)	Toshi Arai	Daniel Barritt	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4:07:30.9	3:16.7	18
3. (13.)	Miguel Angel Baldoni	José Diaz	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4:13:27.2	9:13.0	15
4. (15.)	Benito Guerra	Javier Marín	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X	4:23:23.8	19:09.6	12
5. (17.)	Gianluca Linari	Paolo Gregoriani	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4:26:16.9	22:02.7	10

Special stages

Day	Stage	Time	Name	Length	Winner	Time	Avg. spd.	Rally leader
1 (5 Mar)	SS1	07:28	Alfaro 1	22.96 km	Petter Solberg[6]	13:51.4	97.77 km/h	Petter Solberg
	SS2	09:01	Ortega 1	23.83 km	Petter Solberg	13:51.4	103.18 km/h
	SS3	10:39	El Cubilete 1	18.87 km	Petter Solberg	11:49.9	95.69 km/h
	SS4	10:57	Coca-Cola Street Stage 1	1.50 km	Sébastien Ogier	1:16.6	70.50 km/h
	SS5	12:17	Alfaro 2	22.96 km	Petter Solberg	13:56.1	98.86 km/h
	SS6	13:50	Ortega 2	23.83 km	Petter Solberg	13:41.2	104.47 km/h
	SS7	14:38	El Cubilete 2	18.87 km	Sébastien Ogier	11:38.9	97.20 km/h
	SS8	15:53	Super Special 1	2.21 km	Sébastien Ogier	1:37.5	81.60 km/h
	SS9	15:58	Super Special 2	2.21 km	Sébastien Ogier	1:36.9	82.11 km/h
2 (6 Mar)	SS10	07:54	Ibarilla 1	29.90 km	Sébastien Loeb	18:18.3	98.01 km/h
	SS11	09:17	Duarte 1	23.27 km	Sébastien Loeb	18:10.2	76.84 km/h	Sébastien Loeb
	SS12	10:08	Derramadero 1	23.28 km	Sébastien Loeb	14:03.7	99.33 km/h
	SS13	13:12	Coca-Cola Street Stage 2	1.50 km	Sébastien Loeb	1:15.3	71.71 km/h
	SS14	12:52	Ibarrilla 2	29.90 km	Sébastien Loeb	18:01.6	99.52 km/h
	SS15	14:55	Duarte 2	23.27 km	Sébastien Loeb	17:44.9	78.67 km/h
	SS16	15:06	Derramadero 2	23.28 km	Sébastien Loeb	13:50.4	100.92 km/h
	SS17	16:21	Super Special 3	2.21 km	Sébastien Loeb	1:39.1	80.28 km/h
	SS18	16:26	Super Special 4	2.21 km	Sébastien Ogier	1:38.1	81.10 km/h
3 (7 Mar)	SS19	08:43	Guanajuatito	29.13 km	Sébastien Ogier	19:47.8	88.29 km/h
	SS20	09:34	Sauz Seco	7.05 km	stage cancelled[2]
	SS21	10:12	Comanjilla	17.88 km	Petter Solberg	10:16.2	104.46 km/h
	SS22	11:27	Super Special 5	4.42 km	Petter Solberg	3:12.7	82.57 km/h

Standings after the rally

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Sébastien Loeb 43 2 Mikko Hirvonen 37 3 Jari-Matti Latvala 25 4 Sebastien Ogier 25 5 Petter Solberg 20 6 Henning Solberg 16 7 Dani Sordo 12 8 Matthew Wilson 6 9 Federico Villagra 6 10 Mads Ostberg 4

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 BP Ford WRT 67 2 Citroen WRT 61 3 Citroen Junior Team 32 4 Stobart Ford 28 5 Munchi's Ford 8

References

1. "Rally Mexico Itinerary 2010" (PDF). World Rally Championship. Rally Mexico; International Sportsworld Communicators. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-05.
2. "Rally organisers cancel SS20". World Rally Championship. International Sportsworld Communicators. 2010-03-05. Retrieved 2010-03-05.
3. "Sebastien Loeb of France wins Mexico Rally". USA Today. Gannett Company, Inc. 2010-03-08. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
4. Smith, Sam (22 March 2010). "How A $500 Craigslist Car Beat $400K Rally Racers". Jalopnik.com. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
5. Slocum, Ben (14 March 2010). "http://www.worldrallysport.com/content/pirating-wrc-corona-rally-mexico-rally-america". Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2011. External link in |title= (help)
6. "SS1: Petter storms into an early lead". World Rally Championship. International Sportsworld Communicators. 2010-03-05. Archived from the original on 8 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-07.

External links

• Results at official page
• Results at eWRC-results.com