Mexico : OMV Peugeot Norway - Leg 1
The Corona Rally Mexico showed its brutal side on day one. But the OMV Peugeot Norway World Rally Team is still rather satisfied. Both Peugeot 307 WRCs have reached the finish of leg one without damage while Ford (Marcus Grönholm), Citroen (Xavier Pons) and Subaru (Chris Atkinson) will each have one car on the course on Saturday only thanks to the SupeRally regulation.
Manfred Stohl lies in excellent fourth place despite set-up troubles. OMV teammate Henning Solberg fought his way back up to seventh place following a tyre change and brake problems.

SS best-time as motivation
Manfred Stohl was never really content throughout day one – even though fourth intermediate place doesn`t seem to mirror this emotion. It is the fact that he is 1:45 minutes behind Petter Solberg (Nor/Subaru) that causes grief for the 33-year-old OMV driver – due to set-up troubles of the Peugeot 307 WRC. Stohl: “We did some testing on gravel last week in France. Everything seemed all right then. Unfortunately conditions are completely different here. What had worked out in Monte Carlo and Sweden doesn`t do so at all here in Mexico. Now we`ll have to change the whole set-up in order to test for the forthcoming gravel rallies. The final place is no longer as important.“ On this note the complete car set-up had been changed at the service on Friday to a harder set-up for dampers, suspension and stabilisers.

This already proved successful in the evening at the 4,42 kilometres long superstage in Leon. During the direct OMV Peugeot-duel with Henning Solberg, Manfred Stohl and Ilka Minor achieved SS best-time. Stohl: “Of course, one can`t really draw conclusions after such a short SS, but it seems to work out better. In any case it`s a motivation boost.“ It was already the third first place in the Austrian`s career, following his SS best-times in Monte Carlo.

Tyre damage costs three minutes
Hennig Solberg had once again to deal with brake problems during the afternoon of day one. The Norwegian OMV driver nevertheless reached fourth-best overall time on SS 4 – followed by a set-back during the next special stage. Following a tyre damage the mousse didn`t work perfectly anymore and Solberg/Menkerud had to change the tyre during the special stage. The incident cost them almost three minutes. Solberg. “First the tyre damage and then recurring brake troubles. We`re happy to have reached the finish. I could have gone even faster on SS 4 but in the middle of the stage my drink bottle slipped below the pedals and it took some time to retrieve it. I sincerely hope that we`ll solve the brake problems until Saturday.“ The OMV duo has fought its way back up to seventh place in the intermediate standings.

Both Bozian Racing Peugeots reach finish of leg one
OMV Peugeot Norway Team Manager Jackie Bozian shows himself confident despite some problems: “Manfred and Henning did a great job today. The got both Peugeots across the finishing line and I`m sure that they will even do better on the next two days. But it is also vital for Manfred to find the right gravel set-up, which makes the end-result somewhat secondary.“

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