RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO – DAY 1
The eagerly-awaited first day of Rally Guanajuato Mexico has been dominated by the Citroën Total World Rally Team DS3 WRCs. Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia and Sébastien Loeb / Daniel Elena are separated by only 2.3s after the first ten stages, and they have opened up a gap ofover a minute on their rivals. Saturday , it will be the Citroën drivers turn to sweep the layer of dust covering the gravel roads near Léon.
The Mexican spectators were as enthusiastic as ever when theywelcomed the crews in the World Rally Championship in the streets of Guanajuato. As soon as they got down from the podium, the drivers set off to tackle the first stage on the paved streets of the former mining city. Petter Solberg in his Citroën DS3 WRC set the quickest time and took the lead in the event.
However, the race really began this Friday morning on the gravel roads in the vicinity of Léon. SébastienOgier and Sébastien Loeb, who were fourth and sixth in the starting order of the first day established by theworld championship positions, took advantage of roads that had already been swept by the cars starting infront of them. Ogier set the quickest times in SS2 and 3 and went into the lead. Loeb also showed the speedof the DS3 WRC by being fastest in SS4 and 5. The seven-time world champion came back to the servicepark for the midday halt with a lead of just seven tenths of a second over his team-mate!
The no-holds-barred battle continued throughout the afternoon. Ogier was again quickest in Alfaro andOrtega, but Loeb fought back in Cubilete (SS8), which proved decisive in deciding the starting order for thesecond leg at the end of this loop. Ogier was still in the lead 1.6s in front of his team-mate. After the twosuper stages the final gap was 2.3s. After losing seven minutes because of a connector that had come off(SS6), Petter Solberg was down in thirteenth place.
“My strategy was simple. I had to push as hard as possible today,” was how Ogier summed things up. “Ourfourth position on the road wasn’t too bad but not ideal in that the other DS3 WRCs started just behind me.In these conditions, the fact that I’ve been quicker than Petter and Seb all day makes me very happy. It’ll bea lot more difficult tomorrow as I have to open the road. I’m not in the best position to win the rally, but Idon’t have any other choice. I’m going to continue pushing as hard as I can.”
Loeb’s summary is even more positive: “I couldn’t really have hoped for much better on the first day. My aimwas not to be in the lead this evening. The situation soon became pretty clear where our rivals wereconcerned, and the rally quickly turned into a scrap with Sébastien. I think we were both going flat out andthe next round looks interesting. We’ll have to see how much sweeping influences things. With the new carsand the Michelin tyres I have the impression that the gaps are smaller than in the past. I can’t wait fortomorrow !”
Olivier Quesnel, the Citroën Racing Team Principal, is satisfied with the performance of the DS3 WRCs. “Wefelt confident after our development tests, but we were waiting impatiently for the verdict of the stop watch tojudge the performance of our new car. The Citroëns set all the fastest times today and their reliability is prettygood so far.”
The figuresSébastien Loeb / Daniel Elena Sébastien Ogier / Julien IngrassiaSS1: Guanajuato Street (1,05 km) 2nd +0.2s 2nd +0.2s 3rd +0.5s 3rd +0.5sSS2: Alfaro 1 (26,01 km) 2nd +0.5s 2nd +0.2s 1st 1stSS3: Ortega 1 (23,83 km) 2nd +1.4s 2nd +1.6s 1st 1stSS4: El Cubilete 1 (18,87 km) 1st 2nd +1.2s 2nd +0.4s 1stSS5: Leon Street 1 (1,33 km) 1st 1st 3rd +1.9s 2nd +0.7sSS6: Alfaro 2 (26,01 km) 2nd +1.2s 2nd 0.5s 1st 1stSS7: Ortega 2 (23,83 km) 3rd +2.1s 2nd +2.6s 1st 1stSS8: El Cubilete 2 (18,87 km) 1st 2nd +1.6s 2nd +1.0s 1stSS9: Super Special 1 (2,21 km) 1st 2nd +1.1s 3rd +0.5s 1stSS10: Super Special 2 (2,21 km) 2nd +1.2s 2nd +2.3s 1st 1st
Quickest times in the stagesDay 1 – SS1: Petter Solberg (Citroën DS3) – SS2 and 3: Sébastien Ogier (Citroën DS3) – SS4 and 5:Sébastien Loeb (Citroën DS3) – SS6 and 7: Ogier – SS8: Loeb – SS9Best performers: Ogier, 5 fastest times – Loeb, 4 – P. Solberg, 1.Leaders: SS1: Solberg – SS2 to 4: Ogier – SS5: Loeb – SS6 to 10: Ogier.
Overall classification after the first day1 S. Ogier / J. Ingrassia Citroën DS3 WRC +1h27m.22.3s2 S. Loeb / D. Elena Citroën DS3 WRC +2.9s3 M. Hirvonen / J. Lehtinen Ford Fiesta RS WRC +1m19.9s4 J. Latvala / M. Anttila Ford Fiesta RS WRC +2m53.6s5 E. Novikov / S. Prévot Ford Fiesta RS WRC +3m04.0s6 H. Solberg / I. Minor Ford Fiesta RS WRC +3m16.5s7 D. Kuipers / F. Miclotte Ford Fiesta RS WRC +5m06.8s8 N. Al Attiyah / G. Bernacchini Ford Fiesta S2000 +5m15.2s9 O. Tanak / K. Sikk Ford Fiesta S2000 +5m42.2s10 M. Prokop / J. Tomanek Ford Fiesta S2000 +6m07.8s
