Preview: Corona Rally Mexico.

The 18th Corona Rally Mexico takes place this coming weekend - the third round out of sixteen in the 2004 FIA World Rally Championship.

Mexico will also play host to the second round in the 2004 FIA Production Car WRC.

The event marks the return of the WRC to North America after an absence of more than 15 years - and it is also the very first time Mexico has hosted a round of the WRC.

With FIA regulations preventing teams from testing outside Europe, the event's mountainous gravel stages, run near to the host town of Leon, remain unfamiliar to almost all the FIA WRC competitors - except Sebastien Loeb, who completed the recce in 2003, and Harri Rovanpera, who contested the entire event in 2002.

Presenting crews with a series of smooth, wide, sweeping gravel roads interspersed with more abrasive, twisty sections, the Mexican stages will take crews to altitudes of more than 2,700 metres above sea level making it the highest event in the championship. As a result, average speeds are expected to be lower than on other smooth gravel surface events, such as New Zealand or Finland.

Special notes:

Corona Rally Mexico will be one of the first events to incorporate a host of new 2004 FIA regulations.

Adopting the new five-day format, which allows two days for administration, reconnaissance, shakedown and scrutineering and three for the actual event, the rally will also be the first to feel the full effect of the FIA's new tyre regulations.

Crews will have a limited number of tyres available to them (ten times the number of scheduled tyre changes making a total of 60 tyres per car for the entire event), and will have to make their choice for the forthcoming group of stages during a three-minute period before each service.

With all teams only having limited data about the nature of the event's stages and climate, such regulations will provide an extra challenge.

FIA World Rally Championship news:

Sebastien Loeb leads the World Rally drivers' championship following his two consecutive wins in Monte Carlo and Sweden. Citroen meanwhile lead the constructors' - two points ahead of Ford.


News from the Manufacturers' teams:
555 Subaru World Rally Team:

[Petter Solberg, car #1 and Mikko Hirvonen, car #2.]

The latest evolution of the Subaru Impreza World Rally Car, the WRC2004, will make its eagerly anticipated competitive debut on the Corona Rally Mexico. Taking full advantage of the latest FIA technical regulations, and incorporating a host of improvements to areas like the bodyshell, engine, suspension, electronics systems and aerodynamics, the WRC2004 is the latest development of the car that has claimed 38 WRC wins since it burst onto the World Rally scene back in 1993.

Team boss, David Lapworth comments: "We're hopeful that it [the new car] will be faster than the old one and the new regulations have also given us some advantages and freedoms, which will certainly help.

"I think the event should also suit Petter and Mikko. We have a fairly young driver line up and new events such as this put everyone on a level playing field in terms of experience, so it should be an interesting event."

Citroen Total:

[Sebastien Loeb, car #3 and Carlos Sainz, car #4]

Citroen have had a storming start to the 2004 WRC, winning the first two events thanks to Sebastien Loeb. The Frenchman also took part in the recce last year in Mexico, to get a feel of the event, as it was rumoured back then it might gain WRC status.

"I effectively did the recce last year and that enabled me to discover the rally's basic setting, namely the hilly region between Le?n and Guanajuato," explained Loeb, "The stages themselves were varied, with a mixture of slow and quick portions, very quick even in places.

"The width of the roads was also variable according to their importance and there was a big altitude difference, but the hard surface of the stages shouldn't cut up. The slowest parts are remininscent of Cyprus, but overall the rally is more like Argentina where the stages are very varied too. The 2004 route seems fairly similar to last year's, although a number of stages will be run in the opposite direction."

Can they make it three out of three this weekend? Time will tell...

Marlboro Peugeot Total:

[Marcus Gronholm, car #5 and Harri Rovanpera, car #6].

The big news at Peugeot post-Sweden was the revelation that Freddy Loix will sit out this event and New Zealand (and maybe more?), with Harri Rovanpera brought back in to partner Marcus Gronholm.

Peugeot won the Rally Mexico in 2002, with Rovanpera and as such may have a slight advantage over the other teams. That though was in the 206 WRC and since then the route of the event has changed, the 2002 event was also obviously not part of the World Rally Championship, and consequently the level of competition wasn't so high.

Reflecting on his first visit, Rovanpera said: "I was impressed by the high standard of the work put in by the organisers despite the fact that they had no previous experience of world rallying. The event went very well and the atmosphere was very pleasant even though there weren't many spectators.

"The rally is based in the industrial city of Leon but the stages are beautiful and challenging. Some are fast, others are twistier, while the surface is quite smooth although fairly slippery with lots of sand and dust. Personally, I am delighted to be back with Peugeot after a rather long winter break. I recently did some testing in Sardinia where I was given a very warm welcome by the team. That was very nice."

Ford Motor Company:

[Markko Martin, car #7 and Francois Duval, car #8.]

Ford returns to using it's regular nominated driver combination on this event, Markko Martin joined by Francois Duval.

With regard to the coming event, Martin noted: "It has been a long time since we had a fast gravel rally but I believe the stages are mostly fast and flowing which are the type of roads I enjoy and on which the Focus is good. The recce period will be hard because we have to make notes for the whole route and we have less than two days in which to do it. We can expect some early starts and long days. Almost all the top drivers have never seen these stages before and that means the level of experience is the same for virtually everyone. Testing on long-haul rallies is forbidden so we all have a lot to learn about car set-up. Those drivers that learn the quickest, will gain a big advantage."

Mitsubishi Motor Sports:

[Gilles Panizzi, car #9 and Gigi Galli, car #10.]

Mitsubishi had a tough time in Sweden, with both drivers retiring early on. Since then they have been working to rectify what caused the failures.

MMSP technical director Mario Fornaris explains: "After Sweden we mainly spent time looking into what was wrong with the transmission. I am hoping that M?xico will see more reliability and a small overall step forward."

Panizzi will again pilot the number one car, with 'Gigi' Galli returning alongside him after Kristian Sohlberg was in action in Sweden.


Production Car WRC:

Jani Paasonen won the last PCWRC round in Sweden, with Alister McRae second and Daniel Sola third. They are likely to be contenders again, along with a host of the usual suspects...


Schedule:

Following the ceremonial start on Thursday evening, the rally will start in earnest on Friday 12 March at 1033hrs when crews will contest the highest stage of the entire championship, the 29.06km Ortega - La Esperanza which peaks at 2,737 metres above sea level. Covering a total distance of 1040.67km, the event includes 15 stages, six of which are repeated. The longest stage is the Ibarrilla - Mesa test at 30.47km, which will be used on the final day as SS11 and SS14, while the shortest test is the Derramadero - Comanjilla at 15.42km, which will be used for SS13. A single covered service park in Leon will be used for the entire event.


Hot tip:

More success for Loeb in Mexico? Following his two consecutive wins in Monte Carlo and Sweden, he and the Citroen Xsara WRC look unstoppable, add to that the fact he is one of only two drivers with any experience of the event, having done the reconnaissance last year, and you could be pushed to make a better bet.