Day 1 Rally New Zealand

Petter is number 7th overall, when the first day of Rally New Zealand is completed. Mikko Hirvonen is leading the rally, 27 seconds ahead of Sebastien Loeb. Henning Solberg is 28th, after he lost more than 3 minutes on the first stage when he lost the power steering.

But, it has been a drama-filled first day of the rally. Sebastien Loeb it all when he went of the road on the first stage. He managed to get back and continue and didn’t loose much time. At start of SS6, the launch control didn’t work and they ended up being 3 minutes late, and got a 30 seconds penalty. Everybody were talking about tactic, to avoid being first on the road tomorrow, but both Loeb and Citroen denied everything.

Not the best day for any of the Subaru’s either. They have both been struggling finding both speed and rhythm. On SS5 Chris slid off the road, after breaking in a downhill. He managed to get back and continue, but 500 metres before the finish-line the engine said stop. Petter says he tried to do his best all day, but that he can’t do more than this.

Rally New Zealand continues with 6 more stages Saturday.

Overall classification, day 1 Rally New Zealand

1.  Mikko Hirvonen, Ford    
2.  Sebastien Loeb, Citroen    +27.8
3.     Dani Sordo, Citroen    +30.0
4.     Jari-Matti Latvala, Ford    +30.1
5.  Francois Duval, Ford    +1:27.9
6.  Urmo Aava, Citroen    +2:01.3
7.  Petter Solberg, Subaru    +2:25.8
8.  Per-Gunnar Andersson, Suzuki    +2:50.5