Rally Mexico: Friday Stage Guide

After Thursday evening’s ceremonial start in the historic city of
Guanajuato, the proper competitive action of Corona Rally Mexico kicks
off on Friday, when crews face 137.24 competitive kilometres arranged
over nine special stages.

Cars will leave the Poliforum Service
Park in Leon from 0700hrs to tackle a loop of three consecutive stages
in the countryside east of the city. The morning loop ends back at the
Poliforum with the short Coca-Cola Street Stage and a 30-minute midday
service.

In the afternoon crews will repeat the three countryside
stages, then make two passes of the Super Special Stage in the Leon
Autodrome.

Here are our wrc.com stage notes for Friday’s stages.
Under the summaries you’ll find our list of essential website links to
help you follow the rally via our live results service.

SS1/SS5
Alfaro (22.96km)
In general, Friday’s stages are wider and
more flowing than the ones on Saturday and Sunday and the opening test
of the rally, Alfaro, is typical. The first 15 kilometres are really
quick, wide, and on a road with a very good surface. In previous years
this stage has been rocky, but this time organisers have run a grader
though to make it a good deal smoother. There’s still a lot of gravel
around, but in places Alfaro resembles a stage from Rally Finland – just
without the jumps. There’s a character change for the last five
kilometres, however, when the road becomes twistier.

SS2/SS6
Ortega (23.83km)
Even though Mexico is a rough gravel
rally, this is quite a high-speed stage and one which is notoriously
tough on brakes. It’s caused a lot of problems in the past. Like Alfaro,
Ortega has been graded this year and it’s got faster as some of the
narrow sections have been made wider. Some of the smaller corners have
been straightened out altogether. It starts very fast for about 10km
with lots of long crests across the top of the mountains. From there the
road climbs for six kilometres straight, eventually levelling off at
2,737 metres – the highest point of the rally. Engines lose around 30
per cent of their power in the thin air at this altitude, and this is
where the drivers will really feel it. The road stays more or less at
the same altitude for about five kilometres and goes over some big dips,
jumps and a river crossing until turning right at a narrow junction.
After this point it is downhill and fast all the way to the finish.
There are some very nice long corners in the closing kilometres but lots
of concrete culverts to avoid too.

SS3/SS7 El Cubilete
(18.87km)
El Cubilete is possibly the widest stage of the
event and one of the fastest. It’s practically fifth and sixth gear all
the way through. Of course there are corners, but because the road is so
wide, drivers will carry a lot of speed through them. The road changes
character 5km near the finish, however, and the very final part is
narrower very twisty with hairpins and some rocks and very big drop-offs
on one side of the road. Drivers will have to be careful here because
it’s very easy to break the car.

SS4 Coca-Cola Street
Stage (1.50km)
First used in 2008, when the rally wasn’t
included in the WRC, the street stage is like a mini super special built
within sight of the Service Park. Tackled one car at a time, the
asphalt stage is laid out in a huge park. It starts off with a few flat
out corners, then turns into a succession of hairpins and 90 degree
corners. It’ll be over in a flash, but should be good to watch.

SS8/SS9
Super Special (2.2km each pass)
Many Super Specials
sacrifice outright speed for technical sections, but this one is
different; based in a motor racing complex on the outskirts of Leon it
is wide with has a good high speed section as well as the normal tight
and twisty stuff. Two at a time, drivers will tackle two jumps, two
water splashes and a road surface which is a mix of gravel and asphalt.
It’s great fun to drive and should be good for the spectators, too.

Follow
these links to see the Rally Mexico Start
lists, Timetable,
Entry
List and Maps.
Stage
and Split
times will be beamed here live throughout the competition.

Since the opening round at Rally Sweden, Kimi’s old back pain returned, from an accident that dates back to 2001 when he was testing at Sauber on his debut F1 season. He was getting back into shape for Mexico this weekend but still had to miss some tests due to the pain:

Räikkönen’s back injury dates back to F1

"Hopefully we can drive normally and get it fixed later," Räikkönen
said.