The 21º Corona Rally México, the fourth round of the 2007 World Rally Championship season, took place between March 9–11 2007. The rally consisted of 20 special stages, of which five were super specials. The event was won by Citroën's Sébastien Loeb, followed by Ford drivers Marcus Grönholm and Mikko Hirvonen.
The drivers' championship leaders, Grönholm and Hirvonen, were the first drivers on road and lost time as they had to sweep the loose gravel. They were followed by Loeb, who was able to keep close to Subaru's Petter Solberg, who benefited from his better starting position during the first three stages. However, Solberg, in the new Subaru Impreza WRC 07, had to retire at the start of SS6 giving the lead to Loeb. After the first day, Ford identified and fixed a sensory fault in Grönholm's car. The problem had caused lack of engine power and troubled the Finn: "In the morning, I was sweeping. In the afternoon, I was sleeping". The second leg saw Grönholm quickly climb to second place, but Loeb continued setting top times and extended his lead to Grönholm from 43 to 60 seconds. Hirvonen, Chris Atkinson and Dani Sordo battled for the third place. Hirvonen was the fastest driver on the final day and secured the last podium position, ahead of Sordo, Atkinson, Manfred Stohl, Jari-Matti Latvala and Matthew Wilson. Loeb took the win 55.8 seconds clear of Grönholm. __TOC__
Results Pos. Driver Co-driver Car Time Difference Points WRC 1. Sébastien Loeb Daniel Elena Citroën C4 WRC 3:48:13.3 0.0 10 2. Marcus Grönholm Timo Rautiainen Ford Focus RS WRC 06 3:49:09.1 55.8 8 3. Mikko Hirvonen Jarmo Lehtinen Ford Focus RS WRC 06 3:49:41.0 1:27.7 6 4. Daniel Sordo Marc Marti Citroën C4 WRC 3:49:57.0 1:43.7 5 5. Chris Atkinson Glenn MacNeall Subaru Impreza WRC 07 3:50:37.4 2:24.1 4 6. Manfred Stohl Ilka Minor Citroën Xsara WRC 3:51:58.8 3:45.5 3 7. Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka Anttila Ford Focus RS WRC 06 3:52:24.1 4:10.8 2 8. Matthew Wilson Michael Orr Ford Focus RS WRC 06 4:00:35.9 12:22.6 1 PCWRC 1. (10.) Mark Higgins Scott Martin Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 4:08:44.5 0.0 10 2. (11.) Toshi Arai Tony Sircombe Subaru Impreza WRX STI 4:10:05.4 1:20.9 8 3. (13.) Kristian Sohlberg Risto Pietiläinen Subaru Impreza WRX STI 4:11:15.2 2:30.7 6 4. (14.) Mirco Baldacci Giovanni Agnese Subaru Impreza WRX STI 4:12:51.9 4:07.4 5 5. (15.) Travis Pastrana Christian Edstrom Subaru Impreza WRX STI 4:16:53.2 8:08.7 4 6. (16.) Štěpán Vojtěch Michal Ernst Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 4:25:43.3 16:58.8 3 7. (18.) Fumio Nutahara Daniel Barritt Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 4:26:02.5 17:18.0 2 8. (20.) Spyros Pavlides Denis Giraudet Subaru Impreza WRX STI 4:34:23.7 25:39.2 1 — Drivers using SupeRally
Retirements Nasser Al-Attiyah - mechanical (SS2/3); Petter Solberg - no oil pressure (SS5/6); Francisco Name - retired between leg 1 and 2 (before SS8); Martin Rauam - gearbox failure (SS9); Gareth MacHale - damaged suspension (SS13); Leszek Kuzaj - mechanical (SS13);
Special Stages All dates and times are CST (UTC-6). LegStageTimeNameLengthWinnerTimeAvg. spd.Rally leader1(9 Mar) SS1 08:28 Alfaro 1 23.50 km P. Solberg 14:03.5 100.3 km/h P. Solberg SS2 09:51 Ortega 1 29.65 km P. Solberg 17:28.7 101.78 km/h SS3 10:34 El Cubilete 1 17.87 km P. Solberg 9:45.6 109.86 km/h SS4 13:02 Alfaro 2 23.50 km S. Loeb 13:47.0 102.3 km/h SS5 14:25 Ortega 2 29.65 km M. Stohl 16:58.2 104.83 km/h SS6 15:08 El Cubilete 2 17.87 km S. Loeb 9:37.5 111.4 km/h S. Loeb SS7 16:29 Super Special 1 2.21 km M. Grönholm 1:42.6 77.54 km/h SS8 16:33 Super Special 2 2.21 km C. Atkinson 1:42.0 78.0 km/h2(10 Mar) SS9 08:19 Ibarilla 1 30.20 km S. Loeb 18:17.3 99.08 km/h SS10 09:42 Duarte 1 23.51 km S. Loeb 17:55.0 78.73 km/h SS11 10:33 Derramadero 1 23.27 km M. Grönholm 14:01.6 99.54 km/h SS12 13:07 Ibarilla 2 30.20 km S. Loeb 18:02.6 100.42 km/h SS13 14:30 Duarte 2 23.51 km M. Grönholm 17:32.2 80.48 km/h SS14 15:21 Derramadero 2 23.27 km S. Loeb 13:49.4 101.0 km/h SS15 16:35 Super Special 3 2.21 km D. Sordo 1:44.6 76.06 km/h SS16 16:39 Super Special 4 2.21 km M. Grönholm 1:43.6 76.8 km/h3(11 Mar) SS17 08:23 Leon 16.29 km M. Hirvonen 10:35.8 92.24 km/h SS18 08:54 Guanajuatito 23.34 km M. Grönholm 15:12.3 92.1 km/h SS19 10:17 Comanjilla 18.10 km M. Hirvonen 10:17.6 105.51 km/h SS20 11:28 Super Special 5 4.42 km M. Grönholm 3:23.6 78.15 km/h
Championship standings after the event
Drivers' championship Pos Driver MON SWE NOR MEX POR ARG ITA GRC FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN IRL GBR Pts 1 Marcus Grönholm 3 1 2 2 32 2 Sébastien Loeb 1 2 14 1 28 3 Mikko Hirvonen 5 3 1 3 26 4 Dani Sordo 2 12 25 4 13 5 Henning Solberg 14 4 3 9 11 6 Chris Atkinson 4 8 19 5 10 7 Petter Solberg 6Ret 4Ret 8 8 Daniel Carlsson 5 7 6 Jari-Matti LatvalaRetRet 5 7 6 10 Toni Gardemeister 7 6Ret 5 Manfred Stohl 10 7 12 6 5 12 Gigi Galli 13 6 3 13 Jan Kopecký 8 10 8 2 14 Matthew Wilson 12Ret 26 8 1 Pos Driver MON SWE NOR MEX POR ARG ITA GRC FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN IRL GBR Pts
Manufacturers' championship Rank Manufacturer Event Totalpoints MON SWE NOR MEX POR ARG ITA GRC FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN IRL GBR 1 BP Ford World Rally Team 10 16 18 14 - - - - - - - - - - - - 58 2 Citroën Total World Rally Team 18 9 1 15 - - - - - - - - - - - - 43 3 Stobart VK M-Sport Ford 1 5 10 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - 19 Subaru World Rally Team 8 2 5 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - 19 5 OMV Kronos 2 7 5 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - 17 6 Munchi's Ford World Rally Team 0 0 - - - - - - - - - - - - 0
References
External links Results on official site - WRC.com Results on eWRC-results.com Results on RallyBase.nl