After the daunting Whaanga Coast 2 stage, Jari-Matti Latvala won Rally New Zealand in an 'unbelievable' fashion by beating Sebastian Ogier & Sebastian Loeb after the final stage threw up some suprises.
First to go was rally leader Sebastian Ogier who spun the C4 & then stalled it three corners from home. Second into the bushes was 6-time World Champion Sebastian Loeb, who put the car off the road & lost around 50 secs. Finally, Petter Solberg, who was on a hard charge, put his car off the road, cutting an electric pole in half (much like his former team-mate Chris Atkinson did at Rally Ireland 2009). Both Petter & Phil were okay, but the front of the Citroen was too badly damaged to continue.
Just before the finish ramp, Latvala said:“This is unbelievable. I spoke to [Ford team boss] Malcolm Wilson before the start of the last stage and he just told me to keep going like I had been. I tried not to be too hard at the start in case I made a mistake. At the last split I realised I was 2.7s down so then I did try. But at the end I could not believe it.”
Julien Ingrassia said about his drivers mistake:“We can’t be disappointed when you look at what we have achieved. It was a very good rally, a fantastic place and incredible stages. It was a left/right sequence, second or third gear where we tapped a bank and spun. Unfortunately we stalled the engine and lost a lot of time.”
Filling the rest of the Top 10 were Dani Sordo, Matthew Wilson, Henning Solberg, Jari Ketomaa, Federico Villagra & Xevi Pons.
Jari Ketomaa claimed his first win in the S-WRC. The Finn stormed home in first, almost 1 min ahead of current Championship leader Xevi Pons.
“We didn’t feel much pressure but it wasn’t easy either,” said Ketomaa. “Although we had some problems with the car on Friday we always had the performance but I still need more confidence before I can really push. But I am really happy with the result, especially for my team.” said the Finn.
Pons conceeded that he came under a bit of pressure when Martin Prokop set some fast times on the final day. The Czech's final day charge was ultimately not good enough to demote Pons to the bottom step of the podium.
“I had to concentrate a lot when Martin started to close but it wasn’t really a problem. This is a great result for me because it really helps with the championship.” said Pons.
Local hero Hayden Padden has beaten a clutch problem to take the win in the P-WRC class. Padden inherited the lead when another local driver Richard Mason retired on Day 1.
“It’s been a great event. On the first morning, we were just playing ourselves in. The plan was to attack in the afternoon stages on Friday. But with the problems Richard [Mason] and Toshi [Arai] had, we didn’t really have to. For the last two and a half days, we’ve been able to drive without taking any major risks.”
“The clutch wasn’t slipping or anything like that, we just started to lose the pedal. In the last couple of stages, I didn’t use the clutch at all. You can do that with this gearbox, but it took some time to get used to doing it.”
Emma Gilmore said at the end of the event:“I’m the top female finisher, which is great. The car seemed a bit down on power. The boys made some changes to the car last night. It wasn’t so good this morning, but it felt better in the afternoon when there was a bit more grip around. This is a great result for the Kiwis.”
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