Day two report Day one report

Finland's Marcus Gronholm finished second, with Estonia's Markko Martin third and reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb of France in fourth.

Solberg, who claimed the 12th win of his career, never looked back after snatching the lead on Friday.

He was helped when Loeb was hit with a time penalty after sustaining suspension problems on the opening day.

That pushed the French driver down to 18th place before he launched a remarkable recovery to gain a points finish on Sunday.

Loeb was sixth on Saturday but took three of Sunday's closing stages to finish fourth overall.

Solberg was delighted to have made such an impressive start with his new car.

"I'm so pleased that we came through the rally. There are still things to do (to the car) and with 13 rallies left, it's still a long way," he said.

Gronholm revealed that he had erred on the side of caution on the final day after suffering problems with his brakes on leg two.

"I was going very slowly," he said.

"I wasn't even trying to catch Petter. In order to solve our recurring brake problems, we had to change brake pads after every stage, so it was quite a busy day."

Rally of Mexico: final standings
1. Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru 3:00:41.6
2. Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot 34.5 seconds behind
3. Markko Martin (Estonia) Peugeot 1:38.3
4. Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen 3:51.1
5. Harri Rovanpera (Finland) Mitsubishi 3:58.1
6. Toni Gardemeister (Finland) Ford 4:05.6
7. Antony Warmbold (Germany) Ford 6:01.0
8. Gilles Panizzi (France) Mitsubishi 6:01.7
9. Armin Schwarz (Germany) Skoda 8:05.3
10. Francois Duval (Belgium) Citroen 16:14.2

Overall standings (after three rounds):
1. P. Solberg (Norway) 20pts
2. M. Martin (Estonia) 19
3. T. Gardemeister (Finland) 17
4. S. Loeb (France) 15
5. M. Gronholm (Finland) 12
6. H. Rovanpera (Finland) 11
7. G. Panizzi (France) 7
8. H. Solberg (Norway) 4
9. M. Stohl (Austria); D. Carlsson (Sweden) 3