Rally of New Zealand Latest

[rdjones]

Here is the top 8 after 7 stages:-

1. Harri Rovanpera (FIN) Peugeot 307 WRC 1hr 22min 19.5sec
2. Petter Solberg (NOR) Subaru Impreza WRC + 1.0sec
3. Marcus Gronholm (FIN) Peugeot 307 WRC + 29.1
4. Markko Martin (EST) Ford Focus WRC +31.2
5. Sebastien Loeb (FRA) Citroën Xsara WRC +45.4
6. François Duval (BEL) Ford Focus WRC +53.8
7. Carlos Sainz (SPA) Citroën Xsara WRC +59.4
8. Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) Subaru Impreza WRC 1:24.5

[devil racer nz]

Spectacular roll from Gronholm today. Amazing that he's still in third after first day

[DavidStHubbins]

Gronholm makes a habit of rolling and still winning (or being on the podium!)

[garcon]

If one makes the natural assumption that the 307s will inevitably break, it looks good for Solberg - his nearest rival is 30 secs down. That 2004 Impreza is a beast!
Go Petter!!

[garcon]

End of Day 1, after 9 stages:

1. P SOLBERG 1:25:09.5
2. H ROVANPERÄ +5.0
3. M GRÖNHOLM +31.0
4. M MÄRTIN +31.2
5. S LOEB +48.0
6. F DUVAL +53.5
7. C SAINZ +1:03.1
8. M HIRVONEN +1:24.8
9. D CARLSSON +1:51.3
10. A WARMBOLD +5:10.1

Solberg: "I'm only warming up..."

“I'm very happy with the general set-up,” Solberg said. “The new tyres from Pirelli have been very good - perhaps a little too soft on the long stage seven. We've had a good battle with Harri Rovanpera today, but leg one is just a warm up. We'll see what happens tomorrow, that's when the real rally starts.”

courtesy of www.wrc.com

[Matthopps]

GO SOLBERG!!!

[DavidStHubbins]

Hmmm, so Solberg has inherited Makinen's philosophy of KILLING them after the first day.

Worked for Tommi

[429CJ]

Production cars after day 1:

1. M.Stohl AUT
2. M.Ligato ITA +13.6
3. D.Sola SPA +47.5
4. T.Arai JPN +57.8
5. J.Paasonen FIN +1:25.4
6. K.Singh MAL +1:26.7
7. M.Higgins GBR +1:46.4
8. X.Pons SPA +2:10.2
9. A.McRae GBR +2:13.9
10.N.Al-Attiyah QAT +3:18.6

[tanalised]

I'm off up to the rally today, hope to get some photos which I eventually will post here

[alfasud]

Gronholm wins again in Stage 15, (Batley 2), making 4 out of 6 stage wins so far today. He's now less than 16 seconds behind Solberg. Results from the rallynz site:

http://www.rallynz.org.nz/?Function=Results

Watch out for the results under the heading that says "OVERVIEW NEW ZEALAND 2004" as the stages run.... it calculates the overall leader from the cars that have completed the stage, but until the leaders have gone through, the results can be quite misleading... right now it says 1. D CARLSSON - Peugeot, 2. A WARMBOLD - Ford.... needless to say, Carlsson does not lead Rally NZ at this moment, not is he likely to!

You have to wait a few minutes for the leaders. If Gronholm continues to make up time it could be a very interesting day 3.

[alfasud]

Overall Classification after Stage 17, Brooks 2, the final stage of day 2:

1. Petter SOLBERG (N) Subaru 2:42:11.4
2. Marcus GRÖNHOLM (FIN) Peugeot +19.5
3. Markko MÄRTIN (EE) Ford +24.2
4. Harri ROVANPERÄ (FIN) Peugeot +45.1
5. Sébastien LOEB (F) Citroen +1:01.3
6. Carlos SAINZ (E) Citroen +2:10.8

Is 19.5 seconds too much for Gronholm to make up on the final day, or should he be more worried about Martin, who is less than 5 seconds behind him?

[Comtec Renault]

HI can you tell me if Chris Lewis is still running in the raly, he will be near or at the back!! he is my brother and he will do daft things like try and rally with the big boys, when he can not even win a local rally here in the UK, but he never lets us know how he is doing till the end and our old Mum gets very worried about him...Thanks

[alfasud]

Hi Comtec, if you go to the rallynz site (or same information at WRC.com) and check the results page (see URL above), select the latest stage, then scroll down the Overall Classification and select "All", you should get a list of all the competitors still running. There's a Chris LEWIS (GB), running a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 7 in 39th place at the end of Stage 17.

[rdjones]

Here is the production Top 10 after Day 2

1. 33 Sola-Amigo Mitsubishi N4 2h53'41"800 97.0 km/h
2. 61 Crocker-Foletta Subaru Impr N4 2h53'48"100 + 00'06"30
3. 35 Ligato-Del Buon Subaru Impr N4 2h53'51"900 + 00'10"10

4. 40 Stohl-Minor Mitsubishi N4 2h54'03"700 + 00'21"90
5. 63 Herridge-MacNea Subaru Impr N4 2h54'28"000 + 00'46"20
6. 31 Arai-Sircombe Subaru Impr N4 2h54'41"300 + 00'59"50
7. 62 Baldacci-Berbac Mitsubishi N4 2h54'50"800 + 01'09"00
8. 66 Atkinson-Ben At Subaru Impr N4 2h55'04"300 + 01'22"50
9. 64 Mason-Fenemor Subaru Impr N4 2h55'37"100 + 01'55"30

10. 41 Paasonen-Rautia Mitsubishi N4 2h55'44"600 + 02'02"80

Alister McRae is 11th.

[Just Do It!]

The gremlins that Mitsubishi suffered at the very first stage - the Manukau SuperSpecial Stage - were horrific.

The Mitsi boys got the cars going again, but there was more and banging and popping as they return to base back up the motorway than you would get in a war zone. It was loud and in the car, it must have been barely manageable to the ear drums.

With 3 stages to go, Gronholm leads by 1 second. Solberg did one of the Special Stages with no power steering.

It's down to the wire!!!

[alfasud]

What happened to Gronholm on stage 22? He was only 7th fastest and 18.2 seconds down on Solberg. That put him equal second with Martin - both 16.3 seconds down overall at the end of stage 22.

Overall Classification after Stage 23, Whaanga Coast 2 - 29.60 Km.

1. Petter SOLBERG (N) Subaru 4:02:29.5
2. Marcus GRÖNHOLM (FIN) Peugeot +5.9
3. Markko MÄRTIN (EE) Ford +25.6
4. Sébastien LOEB (F) Citroen +1:05.2
5. Harri ROVANPERÄ (FIN) Peugeot +2:23.7
6. Carlos SAINZ (E) Citroen +3:08.9

So it would seem that barring road penalties, or some other mishap, that's the final order... Solberg wins the Rally of New Zealand.

[devil racer nz]

Gronholm spun on SS22, but was 10 seconds ahead of everyone on the final stage, hence the 5 second gap in the end

[Emfa]

Originally posted by alfasud
What happened to Gronholm on stage 22? He was only 7th fastest and 18.2 seconds down on Solberg. That put him equal second with Martin - both 16.3 seconds down overall at the end of stage 22.

The story on wrc.com was that his handbrake jammed on the exit of a corner early in the stage - cost him 15 seconds. A very expensive spin!

[rdjones]

Looks it was one hell of final day. Can't wait to see the coverage later today. BTW the Production 10 looked like this:-

1. 63 Herridge-MacNea Subaru Impr N4 4h18'12"400 91.9 km/h
2. 40 Stohl-Minor Mitsubishi N4 4h18'53"300 + 00'40"90
3. 61 Crocker-Foletta Subaru Impr N4 4h19'32"800 + 01'20"40
4. 35 Ligato-Del Buon Subaru Impr N4 4h20'09"600 + 01'57"20
5. 39 A.McRae-Senior Subaru Impr N4 4h20'28"300 + 02'15"90
6. 41 Paasonen-Rautia Mitsubishi N4 4h20'44"100 + 02'31"70
7. 31 Arai-Sircombe Subaru Impr N4 4h20'52"100 + 02'39"70
8. 47 Pons-Julia Mitsubishi N4 4h23'20"400 + 05'08"00
9. 62 Baldacci-Berbac Mitsubishi N4 4h24'16"300 + 06'03"90
10. 44 Al Attiyah-Patt Subaru Impr N4 4h27'33"900 + 09'21"50

[garcon]

Go Petter, Go Petter, Go, Go, GO!!!!



Back to back World Championships? I wouldn't bet against it!

[DavidStHubbins]

If Gronholm can cut out the silly mistakes and if Peugeot gets reliable the title is MArcus's, I reckon anyway. Then again there is Martin, Loeb and of course Solberg...