21º Corona Rally México

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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 are 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.^[1] After the first day, Ford identified and fixed a sensory fault in Grönholm's car.^[2] The problem had caused lack of engine power and troubled the Finn: "In the morning, I was sweeping. In the afternoon, I was sleeping".^[3] 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.^[4]

[edit] Results

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Difference
1	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	3:48:13.3	0.0
2	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC 06	3:49:09.1	55.8
3	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC 06	3:49:41.0	1:27.7
4	Dani Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	3:49:57.0	1:43.7
5	Chris Atkinson	Subaru Impreza WRC	3:50:37.5	2:24.1
6	Manfred Stohl	Citroën Xsara WRC	3:51:58.8	3:45.5
7	Jari-Matti Latvala	Ford Focus RS WRC 06	3:52:24.1	4:10.8
8	Matthew Wilson	Ford Focus RS WRC 06	4:00:35.9	12:22.6
9	Henning Solberg	Ford Focus RS WRC 06	4:02:29.0	14:15.7
10	Mark Higgins	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4:08:44.5	20:31.2
11	Toshihiro Arai	Subaru Impreza	4:10:05.4	21:52.1
12	Juan Pablo Raies	Ford Focus RS WRC 06	4:11:10.6	22:57.3
13	Kristian Sohlberg	Subaru Impreza	4:11:15.2	23:01.9
14	Mirco Baldacci	Subaru Impreza	4:12:51.9	24:38.6
15	Travis Pastrana	Subaru Impreza	4:16:53.2	28:39.9

	Petter Solberg	Subaru Impreza WRC	Retired after SS5 (engine problem).

[edit] Stage wins

Stage			Winner
Stage			Driver	Co-driver
Day 1	SS1	Alfaro 1	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills
	SS2	Ortega 1	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills
	SS3	El Cubilete 1	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills
	SS4	Alfaro 2	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena
	SS5	Ortega 2	Manfred Stohl	Ilka Minor
	SS6	El Cubilete 2	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena
	SS7	Super Special 1	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen
	SS8	Super Special 2	Chris Atkinson	Glenn MacNeal
Day 2	SS9	Ibarilla 1	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena
	SS10	Duarte 1	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena
	SS11	Derramadero 1	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen
	SS12	Ibarilla 2	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena
	SS13	Duarte 2	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen
	SS14	Derramadero 2	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena
	SS15	Super Special 3	Dani Sordo Manfred Stohl	Marc Marti Ilka Minor
	SS16	Super Special 4	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen
Day 3	SS17	Leon	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen
	SS18	Guanajuatito	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen
	SS19	Comanjilla	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen
	SS20	Super Special 5	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen