Stobart roll on at Repco Rally New Zealand
Today’s opening loop of stages on day 2 of Repco Rally New Zealand has seen François Duval maintain a comfortable fifth position with two monster stages remaining this afternoon. After re-entering under SupeRally regulations team-mate Matthew Wilson has come back firing setting a raft of top-five fastest stage times over the morning loop of stages.
The only concern for Duval was the loss of feeling to his front brakes which he put down to the overuse of left-foot braking over the last 10 kilometres of the lengthy Franklin test. Wilson’s morning has seen him finish fifth fastest on two stages despite complaints of a noise in the steering on stage 8 and a slight loss of brakes also due to heavier left-foot braking.
Of the 57 original starters 54 restarted day 2 this morning, again to dry conditions which saw crews running down the order benefit from the cleaner roads. Light rain at Rally HQ in Hamilton was not an issue for the three special stages run on the west coast this morning. Crews then headed back to Mystery Creek for the second running of the 3.14 kilometre super special before lunchtime service.
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Team Driver François Duval said:
“Things have been going OK this morning but it is still quite tricky for me with lots of loose gravel on the road so I am taking no risks. I used too much left-foot braking in the last 10 kilometres of the long stage and lost the front brakes but apart from this the car has been going good and we haven’t made any mistakes.”
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Team Driver Matthew Wilson said:
“It has been a really good morning for us and I think this has shown in the times we are setting today. OK our road position is very helpful but everything is feeling really good and it seems to be working well. There has been no pressure today so we are just out there having some fun and seeing what we can do. The stages are really nice today also.”
Leaderboard after SS9
1. M Hirvonen/J LehtinenFIN Ford Focus RS 2h20m55.8sec
2. S Loeb/D ElenaF Citroën C4 +5.3s
3. J-M Latvala/M AnttilaFIN Ford Focus RS +14.8s
4. D Sordo/M Marti E Citroën C4 +26.5s
5. F Duval/P Pivato B Ford Focus RS +1m42.0s
6. U Aava/K Sikk EE Citroën C4 +2m45.9s
7. P Solberg/P Mills N Subaru Impreza +2m49.4s
8. P-G Andersson/J AnderssonSWESuzuki SX4 +3m47.9s
9. F Vilagra/J Perez CompancRA Ford Focus RS +5m49.1s
30. M Wilson/S Martin GB Ford Focus RS +16m49.6s