Sun April 18, 2004

 NZ Post-event Press Conference

 Petter Cements 40th WRC Win for Subaru After a thrilling final leg duel with Marcus Gronholm, Subaru driver Petter Solberg kept his nerve aboard his Impreza WRC2004 to claim his first ever victory on Rally New Zealand. Achieving the sixth WRC win of his career, Petter scored a maximum ten points in the Drivers' and...

 Strong finish for Citroën

 Harri's superb drive acknowledged!

 307 fastest car in NZ!

 Märtin & Ford lead championships

 The Whaanga Coast Thriller!

Sat April 17, 2004

 Petter Holds out Fierce Competitors Petter Solberg delivered a sparkling performance in his Subaru Impreza WRC2004 today to retain the overall lead of Rally New Zealand and pull further ahead of the second placed car. The 29-year-old Norwegian collected another stage win, his fifth of the rally and will start tomor...

 Marcus wins stages Peugeot is definitely on the right track with the new 307 WRC. The teething problems so far seem under control and the performance is very promising indeed, despite the car still not being in its full spec. The Rally NZ has today proved to be a rally just as we all enjoy it: No c...

 Märtin and Ford in 3-car fight Ford BP Rallye Sport drivers Markko Märtin and Michael Park will start tomorrow's third and final leg of the Rally New Zealand in the midst of a three-way battle at the head of the leaderboard after today's thrilling second leg. They returned to Auckland tonight in third p...

 NZ a true thriller! Leg2 of Rally New Zealand has been exactly what real rally fans want to see. There have been no accidents and no major retirements, but there has been nail biting stuff in form of clean split seconds battles throughout the day. The battles seemed to concentrate between 2nd, 3rd a...

 Peugeot quotes at mid day service

NEWS JUST IN

 Makes title battle @ 10:00 PM - provisional, unofficial standings NZ: 1st Ford 47points // 2nd Citroen 38 // 3rd Peugeot 33 // 4th Subaru 31 // 5th Mitsubishi 5 //

 Drivers title battle @ 09:58 PM - provisional, unofficial standings after NZ: 1st Märtin 26points // 2nd Loeb 25 // 3rd Grönholm 24 // 4th Solberg 23 // 5th Duval 14 // 6th Sainz 13 // 7th Hirvonen 6 // 8th Tuohino 5 // =9th Loix 4 // =9th Rovanperä 4

 NZ end - Bosse stars, Solberg wins @ 09:57 PM - Solberg wins a rally for the first time as a reigning World Champion. But the star of the last stage was rönholm, winning the stage over 10s ahead of anybody else! And it wasn't lack of the competition tying, i.e. Märtin was tied with Grönholm before the stage and dropped 19.7s without having any incidents to report! Daniel Carlsson went off but kept his place. Unofficial, provisional final positions: 1. Solberg 4:02:29.5 2. Grönholm +5.9 3. Märtin +25.6 4. Loeb +1:05.2 5. Rovanperä +2:23.7 6. Sainz +3:08.9 7. Hirvonen +5:42.5 8. Carlsson +13:23.8 9. Herridge +15:42.9 10. Stohl +16:23.8

 NZ SS22 - Grönholm & Märtin tied! @ 09:17 PM - Incredibly Grönholm spins again, near the stage start, dropping around 20s. While this has Solberg back in the lead, we have a tie for 2nd place! Whaanga Coast next! Unofficial, provisional positions after SS22: 1. Solberg 3:41:32.0 =2. Grönholm +16.3 =2. Märtin +16.3 4. Loeb +52.7 5. Rovanperä +1:48.1 6. Sainz +2:52.6 7. Hirvonen +5:00.1 8. Carlsson +6:27.9 9. is there anybody left? 10. is there, hello, thank you two car rules.

 NZ SS21 - Gap now 1.9s @ 08:48 PM - This is going down to the wire! Grönholm wins stage but extends lead only by less than a second. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS21: 1. Grönholm 3:30:46.6 2. Solberg +1.9 3. Märtin +13.8 4. Loeb +48.1 5. Rovanperä +1:36.2 6. Sainz +2:41.5 7. Hirvonen +4:39.0 8. Carlsson +6:13.5 9. is there anybody left? 10. is there, hello, thank you two car rules.

 NZ SS20 - Whaanga Coast Drama!!!! @ 07:27 PM - Marcus Grönholm goes off on a junction, drops 12s and still takes the lead! We are yet waiting for reports what happened to Solberg - and Rovanperä for that matter who drops behind Loeb, please wait for proper article on that stage! Unofficial, provisional positions after SS20: 1. Grönholm 3:23:06.6 2. Solberg +1.0 3. Märtin +13.2 4. Loeb +47.0 5. Rovanperä +1:26.1 6. Sainz +2:33.1 7. Hirvonen +4:23.0 8. Carlsson +6:04.2 9. is there anybody left? 10. is there, hello, thank you two car rules.

 NZ SS19 - Solberg shows his intentions @ 06:47 PM - Petter Solberg wins the stage ahead of Grönholm. The gap is back to what it was. More, the next stage is the classic Whaanga Coast, 30km of it as well. Whaanga Coast is notoriously twisty and should hand a clear disadvantage to Grönholm's 4-speed gearbox. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS19: 1. Solberg 3:01:00.6 2. Grönholm +19.9 3. Märtin +33.6 4. Rovanperä +1:01.8 5. Loeb +1:15.6 6. Sainz +2:41.0 7. Duval +3:06.3 8. Hirvonen +3:26.8 9. Carlsson +5:44.5 10. Sola +12:44.6

 NZ SS18 - Bosse applies pressure! @ 06:16 PM - Solberg is 2nd quickest on the day's opening stage, but Grönholm beats him and narrows the gap. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS18: 1. Solberg 2:50:05.9 2. Grönholm +17.4 3. Märtin +25.3 4. Rovanperä +52.7 5. Loeb +1:07.5 6. Sainz +2:22.7 7. Duval +2:41.5 8. Hirvonen +3:06.3 9. Carlsson +5:04.9 10. Sola +12:00.2

 NZ leg2 - Solberg responds @ 01:23 AM - Solberg responds with his first fastest stage time of the day. His lead is still less than 20s with over 100km of action left for tomorrow. Unofficial, provisional positions after leg2: 1. Solberg 2:42:11.4 2. Grönholm +19.5 3. Märtin +24.2 4. Rovanperä +45.1 5. Loeb +1:01.3 6. Sainz +2:10.8 7. Duval +2:29.2 8. Hirvonen +2:48.3 9. Carlsson +4:47.3 10. Sola +11:30.4

 NZ SS16 - Stage win for Loeb @ 00:55 AM - Yep, it seems Loeb wanted a headline as well. Meanwhile the Solberg chase continues. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS16: 1. Solberg 2:32:37.0 2. Grönholm +14.2 3. Märtin +16.4 4. Rovanperä +36.9 5. Loeb +56.4 6. Sainz +2:04.1 7. Duval +2:16.5 8. Hirvonen +2:35.0 9. Carlsson +4:21.0 10. Is there anybody left?

 NZ SS15 - Solberg gets under pressure @ 00:33 AM - For the first time since ages 2nd place has not changed. It seems that rather the potential 2nd placed fighters have agreed a pact - as Grönholm slams Solberg's lead from 23.5s to 15.8s in only the last 17km and with Märtin trailing him closely! Unofficial, provisional positions after SS15: 1. Solberg 2:26:08.1 2. Grönholm +15.8 3. Märtin +18.7 4. Rovanperä +35.8 5. Loeb +59.0 6. Sainz +2:03.7 7. Duval +2:10.9 8. Hirvonen +2:30.7 9. Carlsson +4:09.8 10. Is there anybody left?

Fri April 16, 2004

 Leg 1 Summary - Subaru Team After completing nine of 23 stages, Petter Solberg holds the overnight lead of Rally New Zealand. On the first leg of the competition Solberg put in an excellent performance at the wheel of his Subaru Impreza WRC2004 and collected four stage wins. On his fourth event with the Sub...

 Hyrvä Harri! Peugeot had a very positive 1st leg on the Rally NZ! For Rally NZ new differentials and a new 5-speed gearbox were on the agenda for the still very young Peugeot 307 WRC. In the last event the cars were however so regularly bugged by the same power steering fault, caused by vibra...

 Strong start for new Focus Ford's new Focus RS World Rally Car made a winning debut on the Rally New Zealand by claiming top honours on the opening speed test of this fourth round of the FIA World Rally Championship. The 2004 version of the Focus RS WRC maintained its strong start and Ford BP Rallye Sp...

 Leg 1 - Solberg Tailed by two 307WRCars Harri Rovanpera lead going into the final two Super Special Stage runs, however, dropping time in his close battle with Petter see Petter lead at days end. Petter, after claiming the overnight lead on the Super Special Stage lost it to Marcus Gronholm on the third stage today. Ho...

 Peugeot quotes after SS5

NEWS JUST IN

 NZ SS14 - And Grönholm back in 2nd! @ 11:40 PM - ...just. But this 2nd place has now changed for the 4th stage in a row! Unofficial, provisional positions after SS14: 1. Solberg 2:16:52.1 2. Grönholm +23.5 3. Märtin +24.3 4. Rovanperä +36.8 5. Loeb +1:03.9 6. Sainz +1:58.5 7. Duval +2:04.0 8. Hirvonen +2:21.1 9. Carlsson +3:48.4 10. Is there anybody left?

 NZ SS13 - Now Märtin 2nd, Rovis 4th! @ 09:35 PM - The battle between 2nd & 4th is exciting, Märtin moves up from 3rd to 2nd, Rovanperä drops from 2nd to 4th, all in just one 16km stage! Unofficial, provisional positions after SS13: 1. Solberg 2:04:05.1 2. Märtin +25.6 3. Grönholm +29.3 4. Rovanperä +33.7 5. Loeb +1:04.1 6. Sainz +1:47.9 7. Duval +1:48.6 8. Hirvonen +2:04.4 9. Carlsson +3:23.8 10. Is there anybody left?

 NZ SS12 - Top4 excitement @ 09:02 PM - Märtin manages to squeeze past Grönholm. 2nd, 3rd & 4th are now covered by only 4.2s!!!! Warmbold hits troubles and then gets in the way of Duval. Duval therefore loses around 30s and drops behind Sainz. ford will appreciate it! Unofficial, provisional positions after SS12: 1. Solberg 1:54:17.7 2. Rovanperä +23.9 3. Märtin +25.7 4. Grönholm +28.1 5. Loeb +59.3 6. Sainz +1:40.8 7. Duval +1:42.9 8. Hirvonen +1:54.8 9. Carlsson +3:01.1 10. Is there anybody left?

 NZ SS11 - Marcus moves closer @ 08:44 PM - Grönholm wins another stage and narrows gap to Rovanperä to only 3.6s and to the rally leader Solberg to only 21.2s. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS11: 1. Solberg 1:47:39.6 2. Rovanperä +17.6 3. Grönholm +21.2 4. Märtin +27.2 5. Loeb +57.9 6. Duval +1:13.9 7. Sainz +1:35.5 8. Hirvonen +1:48.7 9. Carlsson +2:44.0 10. Warmbold +7:07.3

 NZ SS10 - Grönholm fastest @ 07:55 PM - Grönholm fastest in the stage, but Rovanperä drops 10s, making Solberg's lead look more convincing. Unofficial, provisional positions after SS10: 1. Solberg 1:38:09.5 2. Rovanperä +14.8 3. Grönholm +28.2 4. Märtin +29.8 5. Loeb +57.1 6. Duval +1:09.2 7. Sainz +1:24.9 8. Hirvonen +1:42.3 9. Carlsson +2:19.7 10. Warmbold +6:28.2

Thu April 15, 2004

 Electrical Problem Halts Both Lancers The Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports team suffered the cruelest blow in the first section of the opening leg of Rally New Zealand and both Gilles Panizzi and Kristian Sohlberg were forced into retirement after the first run of this evening’s super special stage. "Both cars have suf...

NEWS JUST IN

 NZ SS7 - Hyrvä Harri!!!! @ 10:41 PM - ...is meant to mean "Bravo Harri", hope I have spelt it right. The battle Solberg vs Peugeots is hot! Rovanperä wins stage and takes lead by only 1s, 3rd change of lead in as many stages! Grönholm's car has cosmetical as well as suspension damage, but that didn't stop him to be 2nd fastest on this 48km stage and come back into 3rd! Unofficial, provisional positions after SS7: 1. Rovanperä 1:22:19.0 2. Solberg +1.0 3. Grönholm +29.1 4. Märtin +31.3 5. Loeb +45.4 6. Duval +53.8 7. Sainz +59.4 8. Hirvonen +1:24.5 9. Carlsson +1:43.4 10. Is there anybody else?