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Rally New Zealand Day Two

SEASON 2012

Rally New Zealand Day Two

2012 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 
BROTHER RALLY NEW ZEALAND
(21-24 JUNE 2012)

23.06.2012

Sébastien Loeb remains at the head of the Brother Rally New Zealand leaderboard at the end of the second day of competition, but the Frenchman has fought hard to stay in front of team-mate Mikko Hirvonen. After just over 350 competitive kilometres, the Citroën drivers are 6.4 seconds adrift of one another. Petter Solberg has been the fastest driver throughout the day and the Norwegian is now third for Ford.
 
Today, the crews journeyed north of Auckland for seven stages - two of which were repeated - covering a total of 143.01 competitive kilometres. And again, there was just a 15 minute remote service in Whangarei for the crews to fettle their cars for the afternoon stages. Loeb has led throughout the day but only won two of the stages, his team-mate claiming victory in one as they fought for supremacy over the fast and flowing North Island stages. Solberg climbed into third position after winning the opening stage this morning and has gradually extended his advantage over fourth-placed Evgeny Novikov. Ott Tänak remains fifth, despite a spin, and the Estonian continues to battle to keep ahead of Thierry Neuville, who is enjoying a trouble-free run in his first competitive outing in New Zealand. Dani Sordo is also in the mix, the Spaniard only 18 seconds further behind. Jari-Matti Latvala climbed to eighth, but the Finn looks likely to have to settle for that position after going off the road yesterday and losing so much time. He nevertheless managed to set two fastest stage times today. Armindo Araújo suffered damper problems this morning and the Portuguese and Ken Block round off the top 10.
 
Tomorrow’s closing day of competition is by far the shortest, with just 61.33 kilometres to run over seven stages. However, with heavy rain forecast the final result looks far from settled, and the driver with the greatest supply of the prime soft tyres could potentially claim the advantage.

Rally New Zealand – Provisional Results after Day 2

1.   Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena
2.   Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen
3.   Petter Solberg/Chris Patterson
4.   Evgeny Novikov/Denis Giraudet
5.   Ott Tänak/Kuldar Sikk
6.   Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul
7.   Dani Sordo/Carlos Del Barrio
8.   Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila
9.   Armindo Araújo/Miguel Ramalho
10. Ken Block/Alex Gelsomino
Citroën DS3 WRC
Citroën DS3 WRC
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
Citroën DS3 WRC
MINI Cooper Works WRC
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
MINI Cooper Works WRC
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
3 hr 27 min 51.9sec
3 hr 27 min 58.3sec
3 hr 29 min 25.2sec
3 hr 29 min 54.4sec
3 hr 30 min 15.7sec
3 hr 30 min 39.1sec
3 hr 30 min 57.8sec
2 hr 32 min 49.9sec
3 hr 36 min 13.0sec