Estonian Ott Tänak has set the fastest time in the Auckland super special and becomes the first leader of the New Zealand Rally. Craig Breen and Thierry Neuville finished in his wake.
WRC drivers have lived quite an intense day on Thursday in New Zealand. The shakedown served as the first contact with the Kiwi stages and the start ceremony as a great welcome from the local public. Competition and public have shaken hands in the Auckland super special, a small show stage in which Ott Tänak was the fastest.
Although the super special stages that open each WRC rally are usually favorable terrain and almost reserved for Thierry Neuville, on this occasion the strongest rider was his teammate Ott Tänak. The Estonian has set a time of 1:45.8, enough time to beat Craig Breen by nine tenths. For its part, Thierry Neuville, always skilful in these matters, finished third.
The Auckland super special stage has been a fun little appetizer, but the real action kicks off on Thursday-Friday night
With everything, the differences between the main roosters in the category have been negligible and we will have to wait for the gravel stages on Friday to see which driver can impose his law. Yes, it is true that at the moment the Hyundais have started strongsomething to keep in mind if we take into account that the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 come from winning the last three rallies and signing a triplet in Greece.
Also is true that Toyota Gazoo Racing has adopted a more or less conservative script in this first section to avoid unpleasant scares. In fact, Takamoto Katsuta was the Japanese firm’s best rider after setting a time two seconds slower than Ott Tänak’s scratch record.
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toyota on standby
Elfyn Evans has finished fifth in this super special after losing 2.2 seconds to the leader, while leader Kalle Rovanperä was sixth. The almost three seconds that the Finnish driver has lost seems to be the smallest of his problems, considering that Kalle will have to open the track on Friday’s stage and it seems that the rain will not arrive in time to give you a hand.
In an antagonistic position is Sébastien Ogier. The Frenchman will have a much more favorable starting position, but it is also true that he needs a greater adaptation to the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 than his teammates. For the moment, Ogier has been eighth in the super special stage that opened the rally, behind Gus Greensmith and with the same time as Oliver Solberg.
Local drivers rule in WRC2
Hayden Paddon has been the strongest driver among the contenders in the WRC2 category. The local hero has set a time of 1:52.4 that has even helped him to sneak into the tenth position overall. The Kiwi rider, with an extensive past in the queen class of the World Championship, He beat Shane Van Gisbergen by 1.8 secondsanother of the great local stars.
In fact, the Auckland super special was written in a local key, although it was not due to the attempts of the Australian drivers to sneak ahead of their rivals. In fact, Harry Bates has finished in third positionwhile behind the Australian champion was Luke Anear.
Qualifying after SS1 of the 45th Rally New Zealand
Rally New Zealand continues this Thursday (9:33 p.m.) with the dispute of the first stage of the event. Pilots and co-pilots will dispute 158.56 kilometers against the clock in this little appetizer.
Photos: Hyundai Motorsport / M-Sport