Rally New Zealand 2004

[RallyRaider]

First leg is about half over. So far Solberg and Gronholm have been dicing for the lead. Well they were until Marcus rolled on SS6! He made it out of the stage and lost some 40 seconds so we will have to wait and see if he can get through the next stage and to service. And the next stage is a biggie the nearly 50 km "Possum" stage, looks to be a combination of stages 4 and 5, so the roads should now be clean for the front runners.

Rovanpera is doing well in the second 307, holding second position 10 seconds behind Petter. Those two would have benifited from their low starting positions. Loeb and Martin on the other hand are hampered by acting as road sweepers. Gronholm was in much the same situation which shows how hard he was trying - maybe too hard given his roll! So far the new Ford and Citroen are not quite up to the pace of the Peugeots and Petter's Subaru. But given the way the last few rallies have panned out, quick is not necessarily the way to win anymore

Biggest dissapointment yesterday was the retirement of both Mitsubishi's with the same electrical fault on the second Super Special. Makes the trip half way round the world worthwile

[RallyRaider]

SS7 - Rovanpera sets fastest time and moves into the lead. Go Harri!

Marcus doesn't seem to have been too troubled by his roll and has moved back up to third with a strong run through "Possum". Please don't break down again!

[ales]

So it's on! Wouldn't mind if Harri wins at all.

[RallyRaider]

Anybody know exactly what happened to Gronholm on SS6? It was reported as a roll on the timesheets but Rally-Live now say he made "a small mistake". Maybe they are being economical with the truth, a small mistake that led to a roll perhaps

[ales]

Hehe wrc.com says it was a roll.

Also nice to see all top drivers reasonably close together, certainly the gap is not the kind that can't be made up in the remaining stages.

[RallyRaider]

Yup, he rolled it alright





Solberg was quicker than Rovis on the two super specials in the evening and now holds a five second lead into leg two. The running order was set after SS7 though so Harri will take the prime position of last of the A8 machines on the road.

[RallyRaider]

Leg two is now finished. Rovanpera was not as quick as yesterday, don't know why. Solberg has extended his lead as Harri fell back to fourth. Both Gronholm and Martin are catching Petter, but still have 20-25 seconds more to find on tomorrow's stages. As usual Marcus was hampered by problems in the 307, a launch control failure on one stage and hydraulic differential niggles on a couple of others.

Everthing is well set up for an exciting day tomorrow, been a while since we had one of those!


1. 1 Solberg-Mills Subaru Impr A8 2h42'11"400 103.9 km/h 1 1
2. 5 Gronholm-Rautia Peugeot 307 A8 2h42'30"900 + 00'19"50 2 2
3. 7 Martin-Park Ford Focus A8 2h42'35"600 + 00'24"20 3 3
4. 6 Rovanpera-Pieti Peugeot 307 A8 2h42'56"500 + 00'45"10 4 4
5. 3 Loeb-Elena Citroen Xsa A8 2h43'12"700 + 01'01"30 5 5
6. 4 Sainz-Marti Citroen Xsa A8 2h44'22"200 + 02'10"80 6 6
7. 8 Duval-Prevot Ford Focus A8 2h44'40"600 + 02'29"20 7 7
8. 2 Hirvonen-Lehtin Subaru Impr A8 2h44'59"700 + 02'48"30 8 8
9. 12 Carlsson-Anders Peugeot 206 A8 2h46'58"700 + 04'47"30 9 9
10. 33 Sola-Amigo Mitsubishi N4 2h53'41"800 + 11'30"40 1 1
11. 61 Crocker-Foletta Subaru Impr N4 2h53'48"100 + 11'36"70 2 2
12. 35 Ligato-Del Buon Subaru Impr N4 2h53'51"900 + 11'40"50 3 3
13. 40 Stohl-Minor Mitsubishi N4 2h54'03"700 + 11'52"30 4 4
14. 63 Herridge-MacNea Subaru Impr N4 2h54'28"000 + 12'16"60 5 5
15. 31 Arai-Sircombe Subaru Impr N4 2h54'41"300 + 12'29"90 6 6
16. 62 Baldacci-Berbac Mitsubishi N4 2h54'50"800 + 12'39"40 7 7
17. 66 Atkinson-Ben At Subaru Impr N4 2h55'04"300 + 12'52"90 8 8
18. 64 Mason-Fenemor Subaru Impr N4 2h55'37"100 + 13'25"70 9 9
19. 41 Paasonen-Rautia Mitsubishi N4 2h55'44"600 + 13'33"20 10 10
20. 39 A.McRae-Senior Subaru Impr N4 2h55'51"800 + 13'40"40 11 11

[RallyRaider]

Another couple of points:
Peugeot have done a great job of repairing Gronholm and Rautiainen's car, it looks almost as good as new!
The 307s now feature a clever way of circumventing the new rule about no co-drivers names on the rear window. They've put them on the bodywork just below the window - good on 'em

[ales]

There's a rule not allowing co-driver's name on the window???

[RallyRaider]

Incredibly yes, has been since the beginning of the year. Some of the teams had to remove the nav's name when they got to Monte Carlo. Just one example of the idiotic changes going on at the moment

[RallyRaider]

SS20 has just been completed and all hell has broken loose!

Gronholm overshot a juction and lost 10 odd seconds. However, since Solberg hit a rock and lost about 30 seconds Marcus is now the leader of the rally again, by the slim margin on one second flat!

Also hitting trouble was Duval who went off but managed to limp out on three wheels, 18 minutes behind the leaders. Mikko Hirvonen is having power steering problems and lost over a minute. Finaly Harri Rovanperra was very slow and has been passed by Loeb. Don't know that Harri's problem is, but his rally has not turned out they way it could have after leg one

Three stages left to run, a repeat of this mornings three. With Gronhom and Solberg practically even and Martin just 13 seconds behind, anything could still happen.

[RallyRaider]

Second last stage and Marcus blew it with a spin. Solberg now has a comfortablish lead of 16 seconds. Gronholm and Martin are tied on exactly the same time, provided Marcus doesn't muck up again he should be able to see Markko off. Given the number of incidents he has had so far who knows if Bosse can keep it on the road?

[RallyRaider]

Marcus is hammering it through SS23, the last stage of the rally! At the half way point he is 9 seconds up on Martin and six on Solberg.

[RallyRaider]

Solberg is responding. Whilst still losing time to Gronholm, he is hanging on enough to keep his buffer so far.

[RallyRaider]

And that is that. Awesome last stage from Gronholm, but not enough to make up for his previous mistakes. Solberg kept his cool and takes a well deserved first win of the season. Martin was just taught a lesson by Marcus. Is Markko of the Carlos Sainz school and cannot find that little bit extra when it counts, or was Wilson in his ear reminding him about points?

Now just have to wait and see if Crocker and Herridge can make it an Australian one-two in Group N.