Third round of 2004 World Rally Championship.
After the early season rallies in freezing temperatures it was time for the hot and spicy rally mexico. Before the event, FIA had come up with new rules for the amount of tyre sets used by one team. Restricting the amount of sets would cut the costs, but would also cause some issues. FIA also decided to ban the use of gravel crews to make tyre choices more difficult.
Peugeot decided to use their third driver Harri Rovanperä in this event instead of Freddy Loix.
After a difficult start to the year, Petter Solberg started out aggressively and took the early lead. Everything seemed to be going well, but after the last stage of day 1 Subaru's alternator started acting up and the battery ran out only yards away from the overnight holt. Petter and his co driver Phil Mills couldn't push the car to the area because it was on a steep hill. With outside assistance they managed to get the car where it was supposed to be, but they got 5 minute 40 second penalty for it, dropping them out of contention for victory.
Just like we saw in Monte Carlo and Sweden, it was Sebastien Loeb who benefited and he took the rally lead. This time though the lead wouldn't last because he hit problems. He damaged his Citroen's sump after high speed jump. He tried to fix the problem, but the damage done was too severe. The engine can't run without oil so he had to retire.
Markko Märtin took the lead and he was the one who could keep it till the end. Loeb's team mate Carlos Sainz was in second place, but after a mistake from the team (wrong identification code of a tyre set) he had to use the same set that had already suffered through three long stages. He made it through the stages without punctures which was miracle itself, but Francois Duval also caught up Sainz. Sainz then made a mistake and half rolled his car giving Duval a clear run for second place. Disappointed Sainz would round up the podium places. Petter Solberg managed to recover to incredible fourth and lost 3 minutes to the winner (without the penalty he would have won the rally by 2 minutes and 20 seconds). His team mate Mikko Hirvonen took his best result (so far) by finishing fifth. Marcus Grönholm finished sixth after yet another powersteering failure and other mechanical issues. Also Peugeot's 4 speed gearbox didn't help. Another finn, privateer Jussi Välimäki finished seventh in his Hyundai Accent. Gilles Panizzi took the last point and rounded up the point scorers.
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Music: We are the Ocean - What it Feels Like
