Rally New Zealand: One of the same!

One more WRC event has finished with a French triumph. At the Brother Rally New Zealand, Citroen claimed its fourth 1-2 finish of the season and the third consecutive success of this caliber.

The rally began identically for the French team, as its crews initially took the rally lead. At first Mikko Hirvonen-Jarmo Lehtinen were leading the event, before Sebastien Loeb-Daniel Elena pass in front and stayed there until the end. In Ford side, the win was lost since the first day. First, it was Petter Solberg-Chris Patterson who chose to use hard tyres and lost notable time and their chances for victory. After that and more specifically during SS7, Jari Matti Latvala-Miika Anttila lost more than 4 minutes, after going slightly off road, and come back after being helped by spectators and fell from 3rd to 9th position of the classification.

That way, the Citroen crews gained a comfortable lead. In the end of Day 2, they were given orders to remain their positions in the final day and at that time victory was typically judged. Sebastien Loeb-Daniel Elena cruised to victory in front of Mikko Hirvonen-Jarmo Lehtinen. The Citroen crews were escorted by Solberg-Patterson. The 2003 World Champion couldn't put any pressure on his opponents, so he finished safely in 3rd place.

The M-Sport Ford crew of Evgeny Novikov-Denis Giraudet claimed a steady 4th place in their Ford Fiesta RS WRC, after the Russian's mature driving. The Belgians Thierry Neuville-Nicolas Gilsoul, who replaced Nasser Al Attiyah-Giovanni Bernacchini in the bucket of the Citroen DS3 WRC of the Qatar Team, finished in 5th place, after claiming three fastest times in an event they had never driven before. The top-6 was round by Dani Sordo-Carlos Del Barrio, who returned behind the wheel of the Prodrive Mini JCW WRC, after the Argentina break, when they drove for Ford replacing Latvala-Anttila. The Spaniards claimed two fastest times, although they didn't have the best of times, mostly due to tyre choices and performance. The Finns of Ford, Latvala-Anttila finally finished in 7th position in their Fiesta, while they claimed 3 additional points from the Power Stage win and were followed by Armindo Araujo-Miguel Ramalho, Ken Block-Alex Gelsomino and Manfred Stohl-Ilka Minor, in the return of the Austrian driver in WRC, behind the wheel of the Brazil WRT Ford Fiesta RS WRC. The most important retirement of the rally was that of Ott Tanak-Kuldar Sikk, who had an off road excursion with their Ford Fiesta RS WRC in SS20, just two stages before the end of the rally, while lying 5th in the overall classification.

In SWRC category, the Kiwi crew of Hayden Paddon-John Kennard took an easy victory in a Skoda Fabia S2000, especially after the retirement of both Proton Satria Neo's S2000 that were driven by Per Gunnar Andersson-Emil Axelsson and Alister McRae-Bill Hayes. In PWRC, the Argentineans Marcos Ligato-Ruben Garcia took their first victory for 2012, in a Subaru Impreza N15.

FINAL RESULTS