This was the first win of the season for reigning World Champion Sebastien Loeb and the first ever win, at this level, for his Kronos Total Citroën World Rally Team, as a result of which Loeb and Kronos each go to the top of their championship standings. In conditions which were hot and sunny, a far cry from the two previous rounds of the series, Loeb said "The event was really exciting, especially while the fight with [Petter] Solberg was so close".

Petter Solberg had an early advantage, running well back in the field and gained an important early lead which he held all the first day. On the second day, Loeb caught up, and a furious battle for the lead went on all day, until the penultimate stage when Solberg was delayed by power steering trouble. Mexico was Solberg's first finish of the season.

World championship leader Marcus Gronholm started with the disadvantage of driving the first car on the road, losing a half minute in the early sections to Solberg. In conditions which then improved for him, he went off the road when trying to make up for lost time. He restarted the next day, and from then onwards fought hard to regain lost ground. He eventually finished eighth - giving Ford three manufacturer's points and one drivers' point for himself.

The Corona Rally México was the first true gravel rally of the 2006 season. Gronholm explained this event has a mixture of characteristics which reminded him of various other events in the series. "The main challenge comes from the high altitude [it is the highest of the series] and difficulties which most team suffer from the brakes. It is also a deceptive event. Even when you drive through the stages before the event it seems easy and harmless. On the rally, however, it is hard on the cars and, as we saw, hard for the drivers as well".

Gronholm was referring to the unusually high number of top drivers who went of the road during the rally. All four official Ford drivers had to miss stages after accidents en route, as did Petter Solberg's teammate Chris Atkinson. Mechanics at Ford and Subaru did excellent work repairing crashed cars overnight. The only top driver to meet misfortune not of his making was Xavier Pons, Loeb's teammate, whose engine ingested a part from a spark plug, a rare incident in the usually reliable Citroen Xsara.

The FIA Production Car World Rally Championship division was well supported, and a lot of attention was paid by this being the season debut for reigning chamion Toshi Arai with Subaru and the Argentine based Tango Rally Team with Mitsubishi. After an early lead by the young Finn Jari-Matti Latvala, Arai took over the lead which he held to the finish.

Marcos Ligato started strongly with the Tango car but gradually fell back and went of the road on the final day. His two teammates Sebastien Beltran and Gabiel Pozzo had to retire from the event altogether. Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo P-WRC winner Fumio Nutahara had a disastrous event, blowing two turbochargers on his Mitsubishi and then being excluded for a servicing offence. Second overall was Middle Eastern Champion NasserAl Attiyah ahead of Mirco Baldacci in a Mitsubishi. After two rounds, the series is being led by Al Attiyah while rivals Arai and Nutahara are equal second.