2008 Rally New Zealand

The 2008 Rally New Zealand was the eleventh round of the 2008 World Rally Championship season. The event was based on the northern island of the country near the city of Hamilton. The stages were run on gravel roads characterised by their pronounced camber, which gives them a fast flowing nature. They are also known for their picturesque qualities. The rally ran between 28 and 31 August. Sébastien Loeb won his forty-fourth WRC rally, and his eighth of the season, in a dramatic event, where Mikko Hirvonen came third after being passed in the latter stages of the rally. Daniel Sordo, like Loeb, also driving for Citroën, claimed 2nd place. After the event Loeb had an eight-point lead over Hirvonen in the drivers championship with four events remaining.

Event

Heavy rain in the buildup before the event forced a change to the itinerary, with the 43 km Waitomo stage having to be split into two due to a landslip. Despite the poor weather before the event Matthew Wilson still believed the first car would be at a disadvantage, thus making team tactics - as seen at Turkey - more likely. After Gigi Galli's accident in Germany, François Duval was called up by Stobart Ford to replace him as an approach to two time world champion Marcus Grönholm failed to lure him out of retirement.

Day one

Despite sweeping the roads for the other competitors, and a big moment when he nearly rolled his car during the very first stage, Loeb was just 0.7 seconds behind Hirvonen going into the penultimate stage of the day. With road positions for day two being decided at the end of this stage, rather than at the short Super special stage at Mystery Creek, Hirvonen was expected to intentionally drop behind Loeb to ensure a better starting position. Loeb then suffered a starter motor problem which meant he couldn't start at his allotted time. With Hirvonen now effectively running first on the road, he was unable to play the tactical game and therefore ended day one in front, and as road sweeper for day two. When questioned after the stage, Loeb denied any suggestion of tactics - citing the thirty-second time penalty he picked up for starting the stage late - "Do you really think I'd give away that much time?" Hirvonen agreed that Loeb seemed to have a genuine problem. Jari-Matti Latvala also tried to improve his starting position but although falling behind Loeb, he managed to stay ahead of Dani Sordo by 0.1 second - despite backing off before the end of the stage. Behind the two factory Ford and Citroën drivers was Duval, who was just under ninety seconds off the lead. Urmo Aava was in sixth, Petter Solberg in seventh with Suzuki driver PG Andersson enjoying a trouble free run in eighth place. Drivers who weren't so lucky included Henning Solberg - who lost seven and a half minutes with power steering problems, Matthew Wilson - who suffered gearbox problems and had to retire for the day after SS4, the same stage as Subaru driver Chris Atkinson - who rolled his car halfway through the stage

Day two

Loeb used his starting position to close on Hirvonen throughout the day. After taking seven seconds out of his lead on the first stage of the day, Loeb took over the lead on stage twelve. With only one stage left to run on the day Loeb was 4.2 seconds clear - below his target time of a twenty-second lead. With this in mind he slowed down at the end of Te Akau North to let Hirvonen back into the lead. Latvala was able to help Hirvonen by finishing ahead of him on time and to start the final day in front. With Sordo keeping close to the pace of the other leaders, there was only a sixteen-second gap between the first four drivers. Behind the leading pack, the points positions remained the same as on day one. The most noteworthy performance came from Henning Solberg, who used his advantageous road position to claim four stage wins on his climb back up the leaderboard.

Results

Pos.	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time	Difference	Points
WRC
1.	Template:Flagicon Sébastien Loeb	Template:Flagicon Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3:59:18.9	0.0	10
2.	Template:Flagicon Dani Sordo	Template:Flagicon Marc Marti	Citroën C4 WRC	3:59;36.4	17.5	8
3.	Template:Flagicon Mikko Hirvonen	Template:Flagicon Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	4:00:00.4	41.5	6
4.	Template:Flagicon Petter Solberg	Template:Flagicon Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC 2008	4:02:07.8	2:48.9	5
5.	Template:Flagicon Urmo Aava	Template:Flagicon Kuldar Sikk	Citroën C4 WRC	4:02:49.6	3:30.7	4
6.	Template:Flagicon PG Andersson	Template:Flagicon Jonas Andersson	Suzuki SX4 WRC	4:06:56.3	7:37.4	3
7.	Template:Flagicon Toni Gardemeister	Template:Flagicon Tomi Tuominen	Suzuki SX4 WRC	4:07:13.8	7:54.9	2
8.	Template:Flagicon Federico Villagra	Template:Flagicon Jorge Perez Companc	Ford Focus RS WRC 07	4:07:53.9	8:35.0	1
PCWRC
1. (10.)	Template:Flagicon Martin Prokop	Template:Flagicon Jan Tomanek	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4:13:07.9	0.0	10
2. (11.)	Template:Flagicon Patrik Sandell	Template:Flagicon Emil Axelsson	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4:13:44.1	36.2	8
3. (12.)	Template:Flagicon Martin Rauam	Template:Flagicon Silver Kütt	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4:14:05.7	57.8	6

Championship standings after the event

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver MON Template:Flagicon SWE Template:Flagicon MEX Template:Flagicon ARG Template:Flagicon JOR Template:Flagicon ITA Template:Flagicon GRC Template:Flagicon TUR Template:Flagicon FIN Template:Flagicon GER Template:Flagicon NZL Template:Flagicon ESP Template:Flagicon FRA Template:Flagicon JPN Template:Flagicon GBR Template:Flagicon  Pts  1 Template:Flagicon Sébastien Loeb 1 Ret. 1 1 10 1 1 3 1 1 1 86 2 Template:Flagicon Mikko Hirvonen 2 2 4 5 1 2 3 1 2 4 3 78 3 Template:Flagicon Dani Sordo 11 6 17 3 2 5 5 4 4 2 2 51 4 Template:Flagicon Chris Atkinson 3 21 2 2 3 6 Ret. 13 3 6 Ret. 40 5 Template:Flagicon Jari-Matti Latvala 12 1 3 15 7 3 7 2 39 9 Ret. 34 6 Template:Flagicon Petter Solberg 5 4 12 Ret. Ret. 10 2 6 6 5 4 32 7 Template:Flagicon Henning Solberg 9 13 5 Ret. 4 7 8 5 5 5 9 22 8 Template:Flagicon Gigi Galli 6 3 Ret. 7 8 4 Ret. Ret. Ret. Ret. 17 9 Template:Flagicon Matthew Wilson 10 Ret. 6 Ret. 5 12 6 7 9 12 17 12 10 Template:Flagicon François Duval 4 3 Ret. 11 Template:Flagicon Urmo Aava 18 Ret. 8 4 Ret. 16 8 5 12 Template:Flagicon Federico Villagra 7 6 6 14 13 9 Ret. 8 9 13 Template:Flagicon Conrad Rautenbach Ret. 16 16 4 26 13 10 8 10 10 Ret. 6 14 Template:Flagicon Toni Gardemeister Ret. 7 Ret. Ret. Ret. Ret. 9 Ret. 8 10 7 5 15 Template:Flagicon Andreas Mikkelsen 5 Ret. 26 12 11 4 16 Template:Flagicon Per-Gunnar Andersson 8 Ret. Ret. 24 Ret. 9 11 Ret. Ret. 15 6 17 Template:Flagicon Jean-Marie Cuoq 7 2 Template:Flagicon Matti Rantanen 7 18 Template:Flagicon Juho Hänninen 8 21 13 14 1 Template:Flagicon Sébastien Ogier 8 11 22 36 19 Template:Flagicon Andreas Aigner 31 8 14 11 Ret. Ret. Pos Driver MON Template:Flagicon SWE Template:Flagicon MEX Template:Flagicon ARG Template:Flagicon JOR Template:Flagicon ITA Template:Flagicon GRC Template:Flagicon TUR Template:Flagicon FIN Template:Flagicon GER Template:Flagicon NZL Template:Flagicon ESP Template:Flagicon FRA Template:Flagicon JPN Template:Flagicon GBR Template:Flagicon Pts

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Cancelled (C) Blank Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

Manufacturers' championship

Rank	Team	Event															Total points
		MON Template:Flagicon	SWE Template:Flagicon	MEX Template:Flagicon	ARG Template:Flagicon	JOR Template:Flagicon	ITA Template:Flagicon	GRC Template:Flagicon	TUR Template:Flagicon	FIN Template:Flagicon	GER Template:Flagicon	NZL Template:Flagicon	ESP Template:Flagicon	FRA Template:Flagicon	JPN Template:Flagicon	GBR Template:Flagicon
1	Template:Flagicon Citroën Total World Rally Team	11	4	10	16	9	14	15	11	15	18	18	-	-	-	-	141
2	Template:Flagicon BP Ford World Rally Team	8	18	11	7	13	14	10	18	9	7	6	-	-	-	-	121
3	Template:Flagicon Subaru World Rally Team	10	6	9	8	6	3	8	3	9	7	5	-	-	-	-	74
4	Template:Flagicon Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team	8	8	3	3	7	5	3	4	4	6	0	-	-	-	-	51
5	Template:Flagicon Munchi's Ford World Rally Team	0	0	6	4	4	2	0	3	0	0	3	-	-	-	-	22
6	Template:Flagicon Suzuki World Rally Team	2	3	0	1	0	1	3	0	2	1	7	-	-	-	-	20

External links

• Results from the official site wrc.com