KEY POINTS:
After three days of thrills and spills, it was a Frenchman who kept his head among the surrounding madness to win Rally New Zealand, the 11th round of the 2008 WRC championship.
"We did not expect so much when we arrived here and I'm really happy for both
championships, we are now winning the drivers and manufacturers title race," said winner Sebastien Loeb. "I tried to push everything on the limit to chase the Fords and it may have worked [rally leader Jari-Matti Latvala went off]."
However, the fate of the rally winner was decided on the penultimate stage on the Waanga Coast when first Jari-Matti Latvala and then Mikko Hirvonen had problems.
It all came unstuck for the Finns, when Latvala got a bit loose at speed and smacked into a bank, destroying the front of the car. The resulting oil leak put paid to his day and any chance of winning. Further into the stage Hirvonen got a puncture, spun, and dropped 50sec, pushing him back to third. These gaffes effectively gifted the rally to Citroen pilots Loeb and Daniel Sordo.
Rally leader Hirvonen was comfortable in front with Latvala running interference for him in second, ahead of Sordo and Loeb.
"Everything was so perfect in the morning when I took the lead," said Hirvonen. "I did look very good but it was not meant to happen. It's going to make it difficult in the championship, as I'm eight points behind Sebastien now. I'll forget this one and move on."
Day three of Rally New Zealand dawned bright and clear, and after Citroen played silly buggers and slowed, allowing Latvala to finish the day on top, the first four drivers were covered by less than 16 seconds.
It was deja vu for Frenchman Loeb when, like Friday's first stage where he nearly rolled the car, he spun and lost 10 seconds on the leader's Hirvonen and Latvala.
Loeb had now made the difficult task of reducing the overnight deficit of 13sec almost impossible as he was now 19.7sec behind Hirvonen and dropped to fourth behind teammate Daniel Sordo.
The laconic Frenchman had to really pull the pin in the afternoon, as the stages were a repeat of the mornings, so those starting first weren't at a disadvantage any more.
All the action happened on the Waanga Coast when the red mist descended on a number of drivers. BP Ford principal Malcolm Wilson must have had a fit when he realised dramas involving both his drivers had cost the team any chance of a win.
Manufacturer Ford was having a bad day generally, as Francois Dual in the Stobart entry, who had been sitting comfortably in fifth, also conspired to put his car out of the reckoning.
Other than the two Citroen drivers, Subaru and Petter Solberg benefited rather nicely when the dust had settled. Solberg salvaged a well-earned fourth place by the close of play after a dismal start that included Chris Atkinson rolling his car on day one.
"I'm sorry I was so rude on Friday but there were problems," said Solberg. "I got better today and the car improved."
While all that was going on the P-WRC drivers were having their own battle and it was Martin Prokop who took the win from Patrik Sandell and Martin Rauam.
When all is said an done, the new rules that state the overnight leader must start every stage the next day first, has made a mockery of two days of rallying. With the leaders of the rally jockeying for the next day's start position, rally fans are deprived of good hard toe-to-toe fighting right to the end of the day.
The shuffling about for the next-day's start position is within the rules. But it would a much better spectacle if rallying reverted to the old system of reverse seeding where the overnight leader could pick where to start in the top 15.
