Motorsport: Sainz recovers for quality shakedown

Spanish driver Carlos Sainz recovered from a crash to post third-quickest time in today's shakedown for the Rally New Zealand.

Sainz, the four-time winner of Rally New Zealand, slid his Ford off the road into a drain in his second run on the shakedown stage at Helensville this morning.

The 40-year-old, two-time world champion quickly made amends with a series of quick runs over the 5.4km stage, posting the third-quickest time of two minutes 35 seconds after eight runs through the test stage.

Defending champion Richard Burns was the quickest of the day, clocking 2min 33sec, an average speed of 126kmh, in his Peugeot.

Subaru flier Petter Solberg posted the second-quickest time with the Norwegian champion only one second behind Burns.

Burns' teammate and current World Rally Championship leader Marcus Gronholm posted 2min 36sec, the same time as Peugeot's third driver and fellow Finn Harri Rovanpera. Gronholm was quickly on the pace and was content with only three test runs.

Also on the pace was another Peugeot driver Gilles Panizzi, winner of three World Rally Championship titles this year, who posted 2min 37sec. That was matched by fellow-Frenchman Francois Delecour in his Mitsubishi.

They were 1sec ahead of Jani Paasonen, the replacement driver for the injured Alister McRae in the Mitsubishi team. He was matched by Armin Schwarz in a Hyundai and Markko Martin in a Ford.

Most of the leading New Zealand drivers bypassed today's shakedown.

The leading drivers were to take part in the Rally Show this afternoon in Aotea Square in downtown Auckland ahead of the ceremonial start from 7pm.

Tomorrow's eight special stages in the Waikato region, with service in Raglan, take in 117km. There is a further 493km touring and the action finishes with the Super Special Stage at Manukau City at 7pm.

The rally moves to Northland on Saturday with service at Ruawai. It comprises 10 special stages over 204km and a further 556km touring.

The final day on Sunday centres on Te Kauwhata in Waikato with eight special stages over 90km, with prizegiving ceremony at the Manukau Sports Bowl at 3.30pm.

The 26 special stages total 411km, with the rally covering 1792km.

- NZPA