Solberg and Atkinson quickest at shakedown

The Subaru duo of Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson were the pace-setters at today’s shakedown test, the final chance for crews to tune their car set-ups before Rally Mexico begins on Friday.

The 5.13km test road was based in the San Juan de Otates region of Leon, 15km from the Poliforum service area.

WRC crews had four hours in which to drive the stage as many times as they liked. Solberg was the fastest driver, setting a time of 2min 49.9sec, closely followed by Atkinson with a time of 2min 51.8sec.

Gigi Galli of the Stobart Ford team drove the stage seven times, more than any other WRC driver. The Italian set the third-fastest time on his final run. Dani Sordo and Jari-Matti Latvala were joint fourth.

World champion Sebastien Loeb had only enough time for one run after his Citroen C4 WRC stopped on the way to the stage and was brought back to service to be fitted with a spare engine. Loeb was ninth-fastest with a time of 2min 56.0sec.

1. Petter Solberg: 2:49.9
2. Chris Atkinson: 2:51.8
3. Gigi Galli: 2:52.0
=4. Dani Sordo: 2:53.9
=4. Jari-Matti Latvala: 2:53.9
6. Henning Solberg: 2:54.5
7. Federico Villagra: 2:55.2
8. Mikko Hirvonen: 2:55.7
9. Sebastien Loeb: 2:56.0
10. Matthew Wilson: 2:57.6
11. Per-Gunar Andersson: 2:58.2
12. Toni Gardemeister: 2:59.7