Round 2: WRC Corona Rally Mexico

[Invité]

5-7 March 2010

http://www.rallymexico.com/home.php
http://www.wrc.com/index.jsp

Categories:
WRC, P-WRC, S-WRC
Based:
Leon
Surface:
Gravel
Most recent winner:
Sebastien Loeb (2008)



The WRC event rotation system meant Mexico was absent from last year's calendar, but it returns in 2010 amid a year long fiesta to mark the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution and the 200th anniversary of its independence.
With Rally Argentina sitting out the 2010 season, Mexico is the only country in the American continent to host a round of this year's championship, making it a popular destination for stateside rally fans.
The rally is a relative newcomer to the WRC calendar but has proved a popular addition since its debut in 2004, with a compact series of well-organised, high-speed gravel stages through the Sierra de Lobos and Sierra de Guanajuato mountains and the plains around the cities of Guanajuato, Leon and Silao.
The high-altitude stages make for spectacular viewing with a mixture of mountain peaks and flat open valleys. The altitude has downsides, though, as the engines struggle to breathe in the thin air and suffer a drop in power of about 20 per cent. The road surface is dry and sandy, but rocks can get on the road, so drivers have to balance high speeds with caution.

Technical: The engines used in Mexico will be used again in Turkey and Portugal. The spare parts (gearboxes, differentials, front and rear subframes, steering racks and turbos) are shared with the Rally Turkey.
Tyres: Each crew will have a total of 36 hard compound Pirelli Scorpion tyres at their disposal, including six for the shakedown.

Shakedown: Thursday 4 March between 08:00am and 12:00pm at San Juan de Otates, which is located 15.9 kilometres away from the service park on a 5.13-kilometre stage.

Route: The total route length is 884.58 km, of which 354.60 km are competitive. There are 22 special stages (11 different stages in total).

Timing: Day 1 – Friday 5 March: 372.57 km of which 137.24 km are competitive (9 stages, 5 different stages). Start : 07:00am – SS1 : Alfaro 1 (22.96 km) – SS2 : Ortega 1 (23.83 km) – SS3 : El Cubilete 1(18.87 km) – SS4 : Coca Cola Street Stage (1.50 km) – Service A (1119 / 30 min) – ES5 : Alfaro 2(22.96 km) – SS6 : Ortega 2 (23.83 km) – SS7 : El Cubilete 2 (18.87 km) – SS8 : Super Special 1(2.21 km) – SS9 : Super Special 2 (2.21 km) – Service B (1628 / 45 min) – Last car into parc fermé at 09:00pm.

Day 2 - Saturday 6 March: 359.59 km of which 158.82 km are competitive (9 stages, 5 different stages). Start : 07:00am – Service C (0715 / 15 min) – SS10 : Ibarilla 1 (29.90 km) – SS11 : Duarte 1(23.27 km) – SS12 : Derramadero 1 (23.28 km) – SS13 : Coca Cola Street Stage (1.50 km) – Service D (1143 / 30 min) – SS14 : Ibarrila 2 (29.90 km) – SS15 : Duarte 2 (23.27 km) – SS16 : Derramadero 2 (23.28 km) – SS17 : Super Special 3 (2.21 km) – SS18 : Super Special 4 (2.21 km) – Service E (1656 / 45 min) – Last car into parc fermé at 09:00pm.

Day 3 - Sunday 7 March: 148.00 km of which 58.54 km are competitive (4 different stages). Start: 07:45am – Service F (08:00am / 15 min) – SS19: Guanajuato (29.13 km) – SS20: Sauz Seco (7.05 km) – SS21: Comanjilla (17.94 km) – SS22: Super Special 5 (4.42 km) – Service G (12:00pm / 10 min) – Finish at 12:10pm.

Final podium: Sunday 7 March, from 01:00pm.

Grid:


Special features:

[Schumacat]

Please keep posting updates, so that we would know how Kimi is doing. I dont really follow WRC but am interested in seeing how Kimi does.

[Lynn-rex]

Thanks for the info LadyR!

Rally Mexico looks crazy!!!
And KEN BLOCK will be there as well!
Hope Kimi's back is holding well for the rally.

[Invité]

For sure and welcome, ladies and gentlemen!!!

Next weekend gonna be an awesome one...

Updates always will be posted here as soon as possible....

I hope this thread looks better than my first one, I try to improve from rally to rally....

[Zonked]

...lets have some corona and lime!

[Invité]

1/3/10
Back injury scuppers Raikkonen's Mexico test

Kimi Raikkonen will start Rally Mexico without having driven his Citroen C4 for any significant time on gravel, after a back injury forced the cancellation of a pre-event test.

The Citroen Junior team driver had planned at least one day of testing between Rally Sweden and Mexico, but was forced to rest instead after aggravating an injury - sustained during his F1 career - in Rally Sweden.

Raikkonen said: “My plan had initially been to take part in a test session on gravel, in order to get to know the Citroen C4 WRC a bit better on a new surface for me. But unfortunately I experienced a bit of back pain that stopped me from driving.

"I’ve had some treatment now but I preferred to rest before leaving for Mexico. Of course I would have liked to test the car before going, but it was important to recuperate in order to start the second rally of the season in the best possible physical shape.”

Raikkonen finished 30th in the season opening Rally Sweden after losing time in a snowbank. Apart from a brief drive at Citroen's test track in France, Mexico will be the first time that he will drive his C4 WRC on gravel.

“My impression is that driving on gravel should be a little bit easier for us. Or at least that’s what Marcus Gronholm told me! I reckon that we will find a more consistent level of grip on gravel. But for the moment I’m still lacking experience. I just need to get more kilometres in the car in order to get used to the Citroen C4 WRC in particular and rallying in general,” he said.

That sounds not very good....hopefully, he will get over it....

[Invité]

Kimi Raikkonen Red Bull Rally Mexico preview

Mar 2, 2010

NO REVOLUTIONS FOR RAIKKONEN IN MEXICO

Leon, the town where the Rally Mexico is based, produces 60% of Mexico's shoes. An interesting fact in itself, but few people realise just how significant shoes have turned out to be in Mexican culture. The Spanish word for 'shoe' is 'zapato': something that you will see above the door of every other shop in Leon. And it is surely no co-incidence that another one of Mexico's most notable exports is the Zapata moustache, favoured initially by revolutionaries and The Village People but now enjoying a small but significant comeback amongst cutting-edge fashionistas.

Facial hair has not yet been adopted by the majority of World Rally Championship crews, probably because it is intrinsically un-aerodynamic. Although Finland is one of the last bastions of the moustache - four-time World Rally Champion Juha Kankkunen had one as his trade-mark - Kimi Raikkonen has no plans to grow one in the near future.

Instead, he is concentrating his efforts on Rally Mexico: the second event of his World Rally Championship season with Red Bull. Thanks its dusty gravel stages, spicy enchiladas, and non-stop Mariachi bands, Mexico could not present a bigger contrast to the opening round in Sweden. But had it not been for a costly excursion into a snowbank on the opening day there, Kimi would have finished comfortably inside the top eight.

"Gravel is the surface that everybody associates with rallying, and of course it is a complete contrast to anything that I experienced in Formula 1," said the Red Bull driver. "If you are sliding a Formula 1 car, something is going wrong, but in rallying this is something that you do every day. We learned a lot in Sweden and this will certainly help us in Mexico, but effectively we are starting all over again from the beginning now. My approach is going to be exactly the same though: we want to build up our speed at a comfortable pace and above all get to the finish. We managed to get quicker and quicker the last time we were out and this will be the aim for us again in Mexico."

As is the case on all the rallies apart from Finland this year, Mexico will be a completely new experience for Kimi. However, co-driver Kaj Lindstrom has competed on the Rally Mexico twice already and he hopes to use this experience to help Kimi to make progress.

"Actually, I retired from the rally on both of those previous occasions so I've got a point to prove as well!" he said. "But I have a good idea of what we can expect from the Mexican stages. I was really impressed by how much Kimi managed to learn in Sweden, and if we can have the same sort of pace on gravel then I will be very happy. I know how much Kimi is looking forward to this rally and I'm sure he's going to enjoy every kilometre of it: particularly as the road sections are very short so the action is more or less non-stop!"

First pics of Kimi during WRC Mexico...



It's a "CK"....for sure...

[Lynn-rex]

Sharp eyes LadyR!

I like his shoes better!

[Zonked]

..Lol... girls will be girls!

[Lynn-rex]

Kimi has done the recce, shakedown is tomorrow!
He's going to wear a kidney belt (a back brace) to keep his back in place just to make sure but he's not too worried.

[Invité]

Kimi has done the recce, shakedown is tomorrow!
He's going to wear a kidney belt (a back brace) to keep his back in place just to make sure but he's not too worried.

Here's the article and some photos....

Raikkonen Rally Mexico recce report

KIMI RAIKKONEN MAKES WAVES IN MEXICO: RECCE REPORT

Mexico has a long and rich history in motorsport, with the first Mexican Grand Prix held in 1962. Mexico's Formula One fixture lived on in its most recent format between 1986 and 1992 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez: named after the two brothers who made history in Mexican motorsport.

But this was somewhat before Kimi Raikkonen's time, as when the last Mexican Grand Prix was held he was only 12. So Mexico is an entirely new experience and a new country for the Red Bull driver, who will take part in just his seventh rally this weekend.

"It's actually really nice to go somewhere new and see something different," said Kimi, who has now completed the recce of the 22 stages that make up the Rally Mexico. "The event's not exactly what I was expecting. The stages are quite demanding and twisty, but there are also some more flowing bits that are a little similar to Rally Finland. The good news is that there seems to be a bit more consistency in the surface than there was in Sweden. Even in the recce car, you feel that the amount of grip doesn't vary too much. What it will be like when we come to doing the stages at full speed in the rally car, I don't really know: but there are a lot of things that I don't know about rallying yet!"

Having been forced to sit out the Citroen Junior Team's pre-event test after aggravating an old back injury picked up in F1, Kimi feels confident that it will not trouble him further during the rally.

"My back feels OK now," he said. "I'm going to wear a kidney belt - a type of back brace - during the rally just to keep everything in place but I am sure I won't have any further problems. If I was going to experience some pain I would have had it during the recce, but it was fine. I'm actually not too worried about having missed the test: the team has some very good data for this rally anyway."

One of the biggest improvements that Kimi has made since Sweden is in his pace notes, read out by co-driver Kaj Lindstrom. "The level of detail in them is really good now," added Kaj. "Our recce was really good and I could tell that Kimi had a great feeling with the stages. I hope that all the stages are going to go well for us, but there are a quite a few that we thought might be really good such as SS3 and SS12. The roads clean up quite a lot, so I think that our start position will help us too."

After learning a lot in Sweden, the 2007 Formula 1 World Champion is planning on taking the same approach in Mexico. "Most of the speed to come is from me learning more about the car, so that is going to be the main focus here," he concluded. "We're going to just build on everything we've learned so far at our own pace, and hopefully a few good stage times will come out of it too. At the shakedown tomorrow we plan to do as many runs as we can to get a feel for the roads. So far I'm really enjoying Mexico, although even on the recce I was quite surprised by how much power you lose with the altitude. We've had a really great welcome from everyone here and I like Mexican food, so I know we're going to have a good time. After all, Mexico is famous for that!"

Tomorrow's shakedown stage will start at 08:00 (local time), from the service park in Leon's Poliforum.

[Jbmarcus21]

WRC Mexico - Program, Mobile Live Results, Google Earth Map : http://planetemarcus.free.fr/mexique10.htm

[Invité]

pics...





I almost forgot, here is a poll.....feel free to vote, ladies and gentlemen.....

http://www.wrc.com/jsp/index.jsp?lnk=240

[Lynn-rex]

Nice pics LadyR.

Shakedown is done. Here are the times:

1. P Solberg 2.51.7
2. Sordo 2.51.8
3. Ogier 2.51.9
4. Loeb 2.52.5
5. Raikkonen 2.54.2
6. Hirvonen 2.55.3
7. H Solberg 2.56.2
8. Villagra 2.56.4
9. Wilson 2.59.9
10.Latvala 3.00.1
11.Block 3.04.6


Opening stage starts today.
Stage & times will be streamed LIVE on www.wrc.com.

[Zonked]

..I wonder what happens with him,he is fast in the shake down,but it all goes downhill from there!

[Invité]

Wonderful time, he drove in the shakedown, but hopefully he can hold a good position during the whole weekend without having any special incidents like in Sweden...




http://www.rallymexico.com/galeria/galeria2010/Lavadinho/Shakedown/IMG_04.jpg

Loeb/ Elena..

Fans...

[moonraker]

Mixed results for Kimi half way through day 1.

Hit a rock in SS1, lost shed loads of time in SS2 and is dead last, has the 7th fastest time on SS3, 4th fastest on SS4 (a "street stage")....that's quite a day so far

[moonraker]

After hitting a rock on the previous stage, Citroen Junior Team driver Kimi Raikkonen had a more serious problem on SS2 which brought his C4 WRC to a halt four kilometres from the start line.

Raikkonen stopped after two large jumps, but the Citroen team said early indications were that a mechanical problem was to blame.

Raikkonen and co-driver Kaj Lindstrom are working on the car and more information is expected soon.

Seems they fixed it

Some odd times going on, looks like the stage sweepers, Seb and Mikko, are struggling on the loose....their times should improve second time through.

[moonraker]

Petter still flying on SS5 and the Fords are struggling.
Citroen have the top 4 places

[Invité]

Hmm...it's weird to see: On SS1 Kimi on a comfortable P10, than again such a stupid incident (stone instead of a snow bank) and then his stage times are turning into a real rollercoaster game....

Hmmm...is it just the phase of learning or is Kimi more wild than in F1???

[moonraker]

Citroen Junior Team driver Kimi Raikkonen rolled his Citroen C4 World Rally Car out of Friday's competition almost within sight of the end of SS7 - the repeated El Cubilete stage.

The accident happened 17.5km into the 18.87km stage, on a downhill section littered with hairpin corners.

Eyewitnesses report seeing the car roll off the road at high speed, before coming to rest at the bottom of a bank. Both Raikkonen and co-driver Kaj Lindstrom are out of the car and are reported to be okay.

They could return tomorrow by way of Super rally if the car can be repaired

[moonraker]

Day 1 leaderboard

[lightmas]

shame for the crash


i did predict it mind

[Pixx]

wow Kimi. come back to Formula 1 before you hurt yourself

[lightmas]

ouch