Leg 2 Rally New Zealand

Sebastien Loeb is back in the lead when leg 2 is completed. But Marcus Grønholm is only a second behind him in 2nd place and will continue to push hard when the rally restarts on Sunday. Mikko Hirvonen is on 3rd, about a minute behind Loeb. Petter managed to keep his position from Friday and is still 7th. He reports the same problems as yesterday – Not getting enough traction in the front of the car and too much in the back. Still he manages too keep the pace and secure his position. Brother Henning has dropped down to 10th, he lost more than 4 minutes on SS8, after they hit a bank and then had to stop twice on the stage to clean up the mud from the radiator.

Petters new team colleague, Xevi Pons, had to retire from the rally yesterday, but restarted today under Superrally-regulations. Being first on the road today, Pons and codriver Amigo had to struggle with really slippery conditions, and all of the first drivers reported back that it was really hard to keep the cars on the road. On SS8 Pons went off the road and had to retire again.

Tyrechoice has been an issue today. Both Loeb and Grønholm were very concerned about their tyres during the morning stages. Loeb started on 9 compounds, while Grønholm was on 9minus. At SS6 Grønholm was worried because he had softer tyres than Loeb, and Loeb ended with the fastest time. On SS7 Loeb was worried, since he had harder tyres, and Grønholm set the fastest time. Loeb ended with the fastest time on SS8, and Grønholm second with softer tyres.

Rally New Zealand continues Sunday with 7 more stages. First car is due on stage 0903 local time, GMT +12 hrs.

Overall classification Leg 2

1. Loeb, Citroen
2. Grønholm, Ford +1,7
3. Hirvonen, Ford +1.12,5
4. Latvala, Ford +2.02,3
5. Chris, Subaru +2.12,8
6. Sordo, Citroen +2.49,4
7. Petter, Subaru +3.25,9
8. Aava, Mitsubishi +7.12,2
10. Henning, Ford +8.45,2