| 2008 Rally México 22º Corona Rally México | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Round 3 of the2008 World Rally Championship
| |||
 Sierra Madre mountains inMexico | |||
| Host country |  Mexico | ||
| Rally base | León, Mexico | ||
| Dates run | February 29 – March 2, 2008 | ||
| Stages | 20 (353.75 km; 219.81 miles) | ||
| Stage surface | Gravel | ||
| Overall distance | 830.83 km (516.25 miles) | ||
| Statistics | |||
| Crews | 39 at start, 29 at finish | ||
| Overall results | |||
| Overall winner |  Sébastien LoebCitroën-Total World Rally Team | ||
The2008 Rally México, officially22º Corona Rally México, was the third round of the2008 World Rally Championship season. The rally was held on February 29 — March 2 and began with a ceremonial start on Thursday, February 28. It was the first gravel event of the season and also the opening round of theJunior World Rally Championship this season.[1]
The rally consisted of 20special stages, one of which was cancelled due to safety reasons, as there were too many spectators gathered around the road.[2] Also five of the stages wereSuper Special Stages. Some of the sections were placed as high as 2700 meters oversea level, causing significantengine power loss due to lower air pressure.[1]
The event was won by theprevious edition's winner,Sébastien Loeb. Before the rally there was some controversy withCitroën Team changing the engine in his car after a major malfunction during the shakedown,[3] but the team reverted to the original unit and avoided a five minutes penalty.[4] The first rally leader wasJari-Matti Latvala, but after having to be the opening driver on the second day's stages and suffering from the broken intercooler pipe, causing the turbo to overheat and break, he dropped to third.[5]Subaru'sChris Atkinson finished second after constant pace placing him in the top eight on every stage, achieving the best result in his career so far. Fourth overall wasMikko Hirvonen who lost large amounts of time after a few punctures and having to change a wheel in hisFord Focus RS WRC 07.[6]Henning Solberg lost his battle for fourth with Hirvonen and had to settle for fifth after damaging his damper.[7] The rest of pointing drivers wereMatthew Wilson,Federico Villagra, both in Focuses 2007 spec and privateerRicardo Triviño driving aPeugeot 206 WRC.Petter Solberg managed to score the last point in Manufacturers' Championship, even though having to restart underSupeRally format after having mechanical problems with the front leftdriveshaft in hisSubaru Impreza WRC2007 on SS10.[8] Citroën's number two,Daniel Sordo, came back into the fight after breaking the suspension in hisC4 WRC and retiring too,[9] but even though he won 3 stages overall, he wasn't able to regain the penalty he was given.
Suzuki drivers suffered from mechanical problems during the first day and bothToni Gardemeister andPer-Gunnar Andersson had to retire from the rally for good.[10][11] AlsoStobart'sGigi Galli wasn't able to finish the event - the Italian had to retire from top-eight position after breaking the suspension in his Ford Focus.[12]
The top eight was followed by the JWRC podium -FrenchmanSebastien Ogier inCitroën C2 S1600,EstonianJaan Mölder andPoleMichał Kościuszko, both inSuzuki Swifts S1600.
Mexican Ricardo Triviño was disqualified during the second day of the event for using non-homologated driving gloves; he was able to complete the rally after deciding to appeal his case to higher jurisdiction. His request was later rejected and Triviño was excluded from the event, which resulted in Sebastien Ogier, WRC debutant, to score one point in drivers' championship.[13] It was the first time in World Rally history that JWRC driver drivingSuper 1600front-wheel drive rally car scored points in overall classification.[14]
All dates and times areCST (UTC-6).
| Day | Stage | Time[A] | Name | Length | Winner | Time | Avg. spd. | Rally leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (29 FEB) | SS1 | 08:28 | Alfaro 1 | 22.96 km |  J. Latvala | 14:14.6 | 96.7 km/h | J. Latvala |
| SS2 | 09:51 | Ortega 1 | 23.83 km | S. Loeb | 14:11.8 | 100.7 km/h | ||
| SS3 | 10:39 | El Cubilete 1 | 18.87 km | S. Loeb | 11:51.5 | 95.5 km/h | ||
| SS4 | 13:02 | Alfaro 2 | 22.96 km |  P. Solberg | 14:02.5 | 98.1 km/h | ||
| SS5 | 14:25 | Ortega 2 | 23.83 km | J. Latvala | 14:00.1 | 102.1 km/h | ||
| SS6 | 15:13 | El Cubilete 2 | 18.87 km | J. Latvala | 11:45.5 | 96.3 km/h | ||
| SS7 | 16:33 | Super Special 1 | 2.21 km | P. Solberg | 1:41.7 | 78.2 km/h | ||
| SS8 | 16:38 | Super Special 2 | 2.21 km | S. Loeb | 1:42.0 | 78.0 km/h | ||
| 2 (1 MAR) | SS9 | 08:24 | Ibarilla 1 | 29.90 km | S. Loeb | 18:35.7 | 96.5 km/h | |
| SS10 | 09:47 | Duarte 1 | 23.27 km | S. Loeb | 18:19.6 | 76.2 km/h | S. Loeb | |
| SS11 | 10:38 | Derramadero 1 | 23.28 km |  D. Sordo | 14:04.6 | 99.2 km/h | ||
| SS12 | 13:12 | Ibarilla 2 | 29.90 km | S. Loeb | 18:21.0 | 97.8 km/h | ||
| SS13 | 14:35 | Duarte 2 | 23.27 km | D. Sordo | 17:56.2 | 77.8 km/h | ||
| SS14 | 15:26 | Derramadero 2 | 23.28 km | H. Solberg | 13:52.9 | 100.6 km/h | ||
| SS15 | 16:41 | Super Special 3 | 2.21 km | S. LoebH. Solberg | 1:41.9 | 78.1 km/h | ||
| SS16 | 16:46 | Super Special 4 | 2.21 km |  C. AtkinsonS. Loeb | 1:40.8 | 78.9 km/h | ||
| 3 (2 MAR) | SS17 | 08:28 | Leon | 16.09 km | J. Latvala | 10:43.3 | 90.0 km/h | |
| SS18 | 08:56 | Guanajuatito | 22.30 km | Cancelled[2] | ||||
| SS19 | 10:19 | Comanjilla | 17.88 km | M. Hirvonen | 10:12.7 | 105.1 km/h | ||
| SS20 | 11:34 | Super Special 5 | 4.42 km | D. Sordo | 3:19.3 | 79.8 km/h | ||
Footnotes
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| Rank | Driver | Event | Total points | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MON | SWE | MEX | ARG | JOR | ITA | GRC | TUR | FIN | GER | NZL | ESP | FRA | JPN | GBR | |||
| 1 | BP Ford World Rally Team | 8 | 18 | 11 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 37 |
| 2 | Subaru World Rally Team | 10 | 6 | 9 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 25 |
| Citroën Total World Rally Team | 11 | 4 | 10 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 25 | |
| 4 | Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team | 8 | 8 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 19 |
| 5 | Munchi's Ford World Rally Team | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6 | ||
| 6 | Suzuki World Rally Team | 2 | 3 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5 |
| Pos | Driver | MEX | JOR | ITA | FIN | GER | ESP | FRA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sébastien Ogier | 1 | 10 | ||||||
| 2 |  Jaan Mölder | 2 | 8 | ||||||
| 3 |  Michał Kościuszko | 3 | 6 | ||||||
| 4 | Aaron Burkart | 4 | 5 | ||||||
| 5 | Patrik Sandell | 5 | 4 | ||||||
| 6 |  Shaun Gallagher | 6 | 3 | ||||||
| 7 |  Martin Prokop | 7 | 2 | ||||||
| 8 | Francesco Fanari | 8 | 1 | ||||||
| Pos | Driver | MEX | JOR | ITA | FIN | GER | ESP | FRA | Pts |
