Top-ten start for Stobart
After the opening three stages of Repco Rally New Zealand both François Duval and Matthew Wilson occupy top-ten spots with the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford rally team. Duval leads the way in sixth while Wilson lies in ninth after a morning heavily influenced by road position.
The only issue for either of the Stobart crews fell to Wilson when he had a spin on stage 2 stalling his Ford Focus RS WRC07 losing some valuable time and slipping back to ninth after finishing stage 1 in eighth place. After complaints of steering vibration the young Brit’s team of technicians did a superb job in lunchtime service, replacing the power-steering pump and restoring his Focus RS to full strength ahead of this afternoon’s repeat loop of stages.
Struggling to find the right rhythm this morning saw Duval make some small setup changes in mid-day service as he looks to advance up the leaderboard this afternoon.
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Team Driver François Duval said:
“I have not had the best start this morning but OK the last WRC event I did on gravel was in 2006 so I am still learning the car on gravel. The first two stages were OK but the splits were getting a lot better on the final one this morning so hopefully the changes we make in service will help my feeling and speed this afternoon.”
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Team Driver Matthew Wilson said:
“This morning has gone alright for us and it’s good to be in a battle for a point scoring position. We had a spin on stage 2 which caused the engine to stall and it took about 20 seconds to get started again which was a shame because we would have been in a points position if it hadn’t been for that. I will look to continue the speed this afternoon and hopefully finish the day inside the top-eight.”
Leaderboard after SS3
1. M Hirvonen/J LehtinenFIN Ford Focus RS 46m35.3sec
2. J-M Latvala/M AnttilaFIN Ford Focus RS +5.3s
3. S Loeb/D Elena F Citroën C4 +9.4s
4. D Sordo/M Marti E Citroën C4 +11.0s
5. C Atkinson/S Prevot AUS Subaru Impreza +34.9s
6. F Duval/P Pivato B Ford Focus RS +45.3s
7. U Aava/K SikkEE Citroën C4 +53.7s
8. P-G Andersson/J AnderssonSWE Suzuki SX4 +1m10.9s
9. M Wilson/S Martin GB Ford Focus RS +1m21.1s
10. P Solberg/P Mills N Subaru Impreza +1m22.6s