Mon April 11, 2005

 Barratt gains valuable experience

 Stohl finishes in the top 10 The Propecia Rally New Zealand didn’t exactly go according to plan for the OMV World Rally Team with the Citroen Xsara WRC, but valuable experiences were gained nevertheless. After 20 special stages the 32-year-old Viennese finished the fourth WC-run in ninth overall place. Not t...

Sun April 10, 2005

 Galli claims a point for Mitsubishi The Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports WRC crew of “Gigi” Galli and Guido D'Amore finished in the points in their second outing in Rally New Zealand, the fourth round of the FIA World Rally Championship....

 Loeb triumphs in New Zealand A perfectly paced run during Leg 3 ensured victory for Sébastien Loeb, Daniel Elena and Citroën at the finish ceremony of the 2005 Rally New Zealand in Waitemata Plaza in Auckland's harbour district. The Franco-Monegasque pair's second win of the season takes them to 2nd pl...

 Solberg happy with podium finish After scoring a third consecutive WRC podium finish today, Petter Solberg maintains his lead of the 2005 FIA Drivers' Championship. Delivering a measured and strategic drive aboard his Subaru Impreza WRC2005, the Norwegian kept out of trouble to ensure a solid points finish....

 Peugeot increases championship lead Peugeot has underlined its excellent start to the season in New Zealand by once more bringing two cars home to the finish. Marcus Gronholm takes his second consecutive runner-up position, while Markko Martin finishes fifth after an exciting battle with Ford driver Toni Gardemeist...

 Tough 2nd event for Fabia WRC05 Armin Schwarz ended the Rally of New Zealand in 10th place but team mate Janne Tuohino was denied a finish on his first visit to the event when the Škoda Fabia WRC 05 suffered a damaged turbo on the first stage of the final day. Janne limped through the stage but retired from the...

 Sixth for Gardemeister and Ford BP-Ford World Rally Team drivers Toni Gardemeister and Jakke Honkanen finished sixth on the Rally New Zealand today to extend the Blue Oval's scoring record in the FIA World Rally Championship to an unprecedented 48 consecutive events. The Finns are one of only two pairings t...

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 NZ results alteration: @ 04:14 AM - Rovanperä retired from the event. He was 1 of 3 drivers who had a drama packed last stage fight for 8th place. Rovanperä excused his last stage spin with differential problems and excessively worn tyres. Well, originally listed 9th, his car expired on the last road section!

 NZ end - and what a final it is! @ 01:17 AM - Märtin beats Gardemeister out of nowhere, having turned a 13.4s deficit into a 7.2s lead within only 2 stages! Most amazing fight for last point (8th place) in this classic Whaanga Cost stage: Galli reports a spin mid stage, but so do Rovanperä and Stohl near the end! Unofficial provisional end results: 1 Loeb 3h34m51s6 2 Grönholm +49s8 3 Solberg +1m08s7 4 Duval +2m06s3 5 Märtin +3m09s1 6 Gardemeister +3m16s3 7 Atkinson +4m37s2 8 Galli +6m50s5 9 Rovanperä +7m44s6 10 Stohl +8m15s5

 NZ SS19 - one more to go, but a big one @ 00:59 AM - Unofficial results after SS19: 1 Loeb 3h14m06s9 2 Grönholm +40s1 3 Solberg +57s6 4 Duval +1m51s4 5 Gardemeister +2m55s5 6 Märtin +2m59s8 7 Atkinson +4m00s4 8 Galli +5m42s4 9 Rovanperä +6m24s7 10 Stohl +6m47s7

Sat April 9, 2005

 Solberg Moving up the leaderboard Petter Solberg scored three stage wins and moved up from fourth to third position on Rally New Zealand today. Despite having to use tyres that weren't ideally suited to the dry and hot conditions, the Norwegian pushed hard to reach the top-three and is on course to achieve his...

 Mitsubishi heading for points again The Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports WRC team remains on course to score points for the fourth consecutive event in the 2005 FIA World Rally Championship. While the team has suffered some technical set-backs over the last two days, "Gigi" Galli is nevertheless in the provisional po...

 Gardemeister Fifth Leg 2 BP-Ford World Rally Team drivers Toni Gardemeister and Jakke Honkanen ended today's second leg of the Rally New Zealand in fifth place after a tremendous three-car battle through the lush North Island countryside. The Finns fought for every tenth of a second in their Ford Foc...

 Skoda Leg 2 News Armin Schwarz and Janne Tuohino finished the second day of Rally New Zealand in 11th and 12th places respectively. The two Škoda Motorsport World Rally Team drivers were seeded at the head of the field for today’s leg and suffered dramatically from this poor start position althou...

 Gronholm Leg 2 Second Place The three drivers who have been setting the pace all season once more occupy the provisional podium after leg two of the all-gravel Rally New Zealand. Sebastien Loeb, who took the lead yesterday with his Citroen Xsara WRC, heads the Peugeot 307 WRC of Marcus Gronholm by more than...

 Loeb & Xsara Set the Pace Leg 2 Take 2…! To the delight of everyone in the Citroën team, the story of Rally New Zealand's second leg was practically identical to that of Day 1, with Sébastien Loeb, Daniel Elena and their Xsara more or less level pegging with their direct rivals during the morning's loop b...

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 NZ SS18 - Grönholm wins Whaanga Cost 1 @ 11:38 PM - The legendary Whaanga Cost stage, fastest time is well over 20s, but Loeb only .6s behind. Unofficial results after SS18: 1 Loeb 3h03m07s9 2 Grönholm +47s8 3 Solberg +1m03s2 4 Duval +1m47s7 5 Gardemeister +2m46s8 6 Märtin +3m00s8 7 Atkinson +3m50s4 8 Galli +5m30s9 9 Rovanperä +6m05s4 10 Stohl +6m17s9

 NZ SS17 - bad start for Skoda @ 10:36 PM - Janne Tuohino retired with a blown turbo. The battles Grönholm-Solberg and Gardemeister-Märtin are well alife. The legendary Whangaa Cost stage next. Unofficial results after SS17: 1 Loeb 2h41m35s5 2 Grönholm +48s4 3 Solberg +59s6 4 Duval +1m22s1 5 Gardemeister +2m24s3 6 Märtin +2m39s8 7 Atkinson +3m10s4 8 Galli +4m39s 9 Rovanperä +5m03s2 10 Stohl +5m11s

 NZ SS14 - Loeb concludes day2 @ 03:45 AM - The last stage of the day (only meaningless show stuff left now) and Loeb is not from this planet! Winning the stage over 16s clear of anybody else and extending his lead to nearly 1 minute! Unofficial results after SS14: 1 Loeb 2h30m56s1 2 Grönholm +53s8 3 Solberg +1m01s 4 Duval +1m20s4 5 Gardemeister +2m20s5 6 Märtin +2m33s5 7 Atkinson +2m57s6 8 Galli +4m30s9 9 Rovanperä +4m46s8 10 Stohl +4m48s7

 NZ SS13 - Solberg vs Grönholm @ 03:10 AM - Stage win for Loeb, Grönholm 2nd in stage and 2nd overall, back ahead of Solberg by .5 of a second. Next is a re-run of the longest stage. Unofficial results after SS13: 1 Loeb 2h11m47s4 2 Grönholm +37s 3 Solberg +37s5 4 Duval +1m01s3 5 Gardemeister +2m00s7 6 Märtin +2m05s3 7 Atkinson +2m16s8 8 Galli +3m41s6 9 Rovanperä +3m45s2 10 Stohl +4m05s

 NZ SS12 - Waipu Caves @ 02:42 AM - Unofficial results after SS12: 1 Loeb 2h02m53s2 2 Solberg +29s6 3 Grönholm +32s5 4 Duval +55s3 5 Gardemeister +1m54s69 6 Märtin +1m56s9 7 Atkinson +1m57s4 8 Galli +3m13s5 9 Rovanperä +3m25s3 10 Stohl +3m30s8

 NZ SS11 - super close battles @ 00:07 AM - Solberg takes Grönholm but only by 1.7s. Märtin moves from 7th to 5th, but only 0.6s seperate him from 7th! Unofficial results after SS11: 1 Loeb 1h51m11s1 2 Solberg +32s2 3 Grönholm +33s9 4 Duval +49s3 5 Märtin +1m43s9 6 Gardemeister +1m44s 7 Atkinson +1m44s5 8 Stohl +2m54s2 9 Rovanperä +3m04s5 10 Galli +3m07s

Fri April 8, 2005

 Excellent start for Seb & Francois An outstanding first day run has seen Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena emerge as early leaders of Rally New Zealand. Their team-mates François Duval and Stéphane Prévot follow in an excellent 3rd place, less than 4s behind Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen, and there is a palpable f...

 Encouraging performance from Fabia05 Armin Schwarz and Janne Tuohino hold 11th and 12th places respectively after the opening day of Rally New Zealand, the fourth round of the 2005 World Rally Championship....

 Positive day for Petter & Chris Despite the disadvantage of running first on the road, Petter Solberg made the perfect start to Rally New Zealand today by setting the fastest time on the first stage of the event. An impressive and trouble-free performance from Petter through the rest of the Leg kept him in cont...

 Difficult opening leg for Mitsubishi The Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports WRC team suffered a difficult opening leg in Rally New Zealand, uncharacteristic technical problems dropping “Gigi” Galli/Guido D'Amore down the leaderboard from sixth to 10th, while team-mates Harri Rovanperä/Risto Pietiläinen are just one p...

 Toni fights back on new tyres BP-Ford World Rally Team drivers Toni Gardemeister and Jakke Honkanen ended today's opening leg of the Rally New Zealand in sixth. After a difficult morning on slippery roads, the Finns' performance was transformed by a new untried tyre construction and they set consistent...

 Marcus 2nd after leg1 After a ceremonial start in Auckland city centre on Thursday night, the rally moved to the north of New Zealand to base itself around the small village of Paparoa, home to the service park over the first two days. The green countryside and flowing roads of the area are typical of...

NEWS JUST IN

 NZ SS10 - Solberg on the move up @ 11:45 PM - And the next stage is the longest of the rally: Bull at 31km. Unofficial results after SS10: 1 Loeb 1h31m30s3 2 Grönholm +35s7 3 Solberg +36s7 4 Duval +40s7 5 Gardemeister +1m23s8 6 Atkinson +1m24s2 7 Märtin +1m28s3 8 Stohl +2m25s6 9 Rovanperä +2m28s8 10 Galli +2m34s6

 NZ SS9 - Loeb carries on flying @ 10:58 PM - But 2nd, 3rd & 4th only seperated by 5s. And the next trio between 4th, 5th & 6th is only 4.5s apart. Unofficial results after SS9: 1 Loeb 1h22m23s 2 Grönholm +31s 3 Duval +33s9 4 Solberg +36s 5 Gardemeister +1m12s5 6 Atkinson +1m13s6 7 Märtin +1m17s 8 Stohl +2m05s7 9 Rovanperä +2m10s3 10 Galli +2m20s

 NZ leg1 - some different order @ 04:12 AM - This last stage of the day was feared to be very gravelly. Indeed the top3 in this stage are Atkinson-Duval-Gardemeister! All 3 of them move up a place overall! Unofficial results after leg1: 1 Loeb 1h12m01s1 2 Grönholm +20s1 3 Duval +26s7 4 Solberg +31s7 5 Atkinson +54s3 6 Gardemeister +59s7 7 Märtin +1m09s2 8 Stohl +1m47s2 9 Rovanperä +1m53s1 10 Galli +2m00s6

 NZ SS7 - Loeb again @ 04:03 AM - And now watch out for the day's last stage, Millbrook. It is run for the first time this rally and supposed to be the most gravelly and lose stage of the lot - disadvantage Solberg? Unofficial results after SS7: 1 Loeb 1h05m53s 2 Grönholm +22s2 3 Solberg +28s5 4 Duval +30s3 5 Märtin +59s3 6 Atkinson +59s9 7 Gardemeister +1m00s6 8 Stohl +1m43s5 9 Rovanperä +1m46s3 10 Galli +1m51s

 NZ SS6 - Loeb extends lead @ 03:26 AM - Positions swap between Märtin & Atkinson, between Gardemeister & Galli and as well Stohl & Rovanperä. Unofficial results after SS6: 1 Loeb 56m35s3 2 Grönholm +14s4 3 Solberg +17s8 4 Duval +24s 5 Märtin +42s4 6 Atkinson +43s8 7 Gardemeister +51s3 8 Galli +1m10s1 9 Stohl +1m23s9 10 Rovanperä +1m14s3

 NZ SS5 - Loeb sets a marker @ 03:06 AM - Unofficial results after SS5: 1 Loeb 50m12s8 2 Grönholm +8s1 3 Solberg +10s6 4 Duval +19s7 5 Atkinson +34s4 6 Märtin +34s8 7 Galli +44s8 8 Gardemeister +45s7 9 Rovanperä +1m13s3 10 Stohl +1m14s3