Rally Mexico : Stobart M-Sport Ford - Leg 1
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team driver Matthew Wilson got off to a fantastic start in the third round of the World Rally Championship, ending the first day of running with sixth position in the overall standings and second of the M2 runners in Corona Rally Mexico.
Wilson belied his lack of experience relative to the competition in Mexico, steering the fine line between placing fast times and getting to the end of the stages. Many far more experienced competitors failed to make it through leg one and its tricky gravel surface. Indeed, Wilson put in top ten times on all of today`s seven stages, rounding off Friday with a stage best of the fourth fastest time on SS7.

The number nine Ford Focus RS WRC 05 of Matthew, and co-driver Michael Orr, started with an appropriate ninth fastest time in the opening stage of the rally, the largely uphill 22.41 km of Ibarrilla 1. This stage features a combination of mixed surface gravel tracks, with fast open sections leading into tight and twisty, as the stage rises from 2,029 to 2,245 metres. With a wrong pace note the only difficulty on the first stage, Wilson fared even better on the second, the 28.87 km Guanajuato 1, the highest and one of the fastest of the rally, although the brakes of the Focus were feeling the strain.

Matthew ended the first loop of the day with an impressive seventh in the overall standings, having set ninth quickest in SS3, El Cubilete 1. Running through the stages for a second time on the afternoon loop, Wilson set the eighth fastest time on Ibarrilla 2. Sixth on the challenging Guanajuato 2 placed him sixth overall – his highest ever placing on a World Rally Championship round. The day ended with the Nextel Superspecial. Spurred on by the crowds, Matthew set the fourth fastest time. The day was not without incident, however, as the car suffered a number of punctures from the increasingly rough terrain. Matthew and Michael were able to change wheels on the road sections between the stages and thus suffered no ill effects to their stage times.

The story was not quite as good for the second Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team Focus, with Luis Perez Companc encountering early problem which culminated with an accident on SS5 in which neither Luis Perez or co-driver Jose Maria Volta were injured, although the same could not be said for their car which suffered damage to the front-right corner. The M-Sport squad hopes to have the Focus back into action on Saturday, under SupeRally regulations. Prior to their incident Companc had made it into the top ten, even with the challenge of completing SS3 with no pace notes after the intercom system failed.

Matthew Wilson
“I didn`t expect to be sixth at the second service that`s for sure. The rocks on the second run through were really bad, they were hitting and scraping along the sumpguard, you can feel them all the way down the underneath of the car. And that`s with us raising the ride height from the first run. If you move off line to avoid the rocks you end up going off the road, so you`ve just got to try to take the line and avoid them as best you can. We`re going quicker but it`s finding that next step on the second pass. It`s encouraging that we`re able to go quick on the first run as it means the notes are working.”

Luis Perez Companc
“The first stage was okay, very good, no problems. The second stage, in the middle of a village, I had bad notes and I hit the side of the road which made us spin. The car stopped, but, after receiving a push from the crowds, we were back on the road. The third stage, with no notes, was a challenge. It was very difficult as I just had to look at what was in front of me. Jose was making signs at me to stop or push more but we got to the finish line. In stage five I took a corner too close to the side and hit a rock which broke a driveshaft. Up till then everything was going well, I like very much driving on gravel.”

Malcolm Wilson, Team Principal
“I`ve got to be honest, Matthew`s just doing fantastic. Just looking at the seconds per kilometre behind the fastest guy if you look at the first three stages today, it was 78 kilometres and he was 1.16 seconds per kilometre off the fastest guy, Petter Solberg. In fairness, that`s just fantastic. To be so close at such an early point in your career, when you`ve never been to Mexico before; what can I say? It`s a great performance. It`s a difficult one now as he`s sixth overall; he`ll want to keep improving his performance, but then on the other hand he`s in sixth overall and he can`t really be caught. It`s a balance between wanting to go faster and consolidating position.”

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