2010 Rally México

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.

Corona Rally México
Rally Guanajuato Bicentenario
Round 2 of the 2010 World Rally Championship
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Rally Mexico Poliforum, Léon
Host country Mexico
Rally baseLeón, Mexico
Dates runMarch 5 – 7, 2010
Stages22 (354.60 km; 220.34 miles)
Stage surfaceGravel
Overall distance884.58 km (549.65 miles)[1]
Results
Overall winner Sébastien Loeb
Citroën Total World Rally Team
Crews30 at start, 25 at finish

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

References
  1. "Rally Mexico Itinerary 2010" (PDF). World Rally Championship. Rally Mexico; International Sportsworld Communicators. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2010. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
  2. "Rally organisers cancel SS20". World Rally Championship. International Sportsworld Communicators. 2010-03-05. Archived from the original on 2010-03-10. 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). "www.worldrallysport.com/content/pirating-wrc-corona-rally-mexico-rally-america". Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
  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.
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