Gronholm: Solberg to start strongly

Because of Solberg's disastrous Swedish Rally earlier this month, where he was disqualified, the Norwegian starts ninth on the road for the first day of on Mexico's dusty gravel roads, which championship leader Gronholm reckons will give him an early advantage.

Gronholm believes that the Subaru driver will have cleaner, faster roads to negotiate, however that advantage will have disappeared by the afternoon because stages are repeated, and will have already been cleaned by the first run of cars.

"Petter could benefit a lot because he will start well down the order," Gronholm said. "It will only affect us for three stages on Friday morning because the afternoon stages are repeats.

"Mexico is quite a normal gravel rally. It's not particularly technical but has a good combination of fast and slower sections. The stages are held on a good surface, which is quite smooth, but cars tend to pick up quite a bit of damage and I'm not sure why.

"Maybe it's a combination of high speeds and stones coming through the surface during the second run over roads.

"But Sebastien Loeb, who is our closest rival in the championship, starts only one car behind us so he won't have much of an advantage if there is loose gravel."