Rally New Zealand 2008

 Rally New Zealand 2008

Racing data
11th of 15 races of the 2008 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally New Zealand
Date:	28–31 August 2008
Begin:	Hamilton
Exams:	18 tests over 353.04 km
Distance:	1218.20 km
Covering:	gravel
Podium
First:	Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total World Rally Team
Second:	Dani Sordo Citroën Total World Rally Team
Third:	Mikko Hirvonen Ford Abu Dhabi WRT

The 38th Rally New Zealand was the eleventh of 15 FIA World Championship races in 2008. The rally consisted of 18 special stages and was held between August 28 and 31.

Race report

Loeb / Elena (Citroën C4 WRC)

At the beginning of the last day of the rally, everything seemed to be lost for Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) in the first special stage of the day. According to team tactics on Saturday, Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) led ahead of Mikko Hirvonen (Ford), Loeb and Daniel Sordo (Citroën). At first, Loeb was unable to catch up with the plan through the better starting position. Because in the first test of the day he spun and lost a lot of time. After that everything looked like Latvala would win ahead of Hirvonen, Sordo would be third and Loeb fourth. But in the penultimate special stage, luck turned in favor of Citroën. Ford lost everything in the 29.72 kilometer "Whaanga Coast" special stage. Latvala rammed a rock and had to give up, Hirvonen had a broken tire, he spun and dragged himself to the finish line, almost a minute behind. Loeb overtook team-mate Sordo and the surprising end result was certain.

In the same special stage, François Duval (Ford) also retired, who had been fifth throughout the rally. Duval shot straight ahead in a curve. Due to his retirement and the retirement of Latvala, all of the drivers behind made up two places: Subaru driver Petter Solberg , who was not satisfied with the Impreza’s handling , slipped up to fourth, privateer Urmo Aava (Citroën) came in fifth.

Loeb was leading the drivers' world championship eight points ahead of Hirvonen at this point.

Classifications

Hirvonen / Lehtinen 2008 in New Zealand

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
01	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 59: 18.9		10
02	Daniel Sordo	Marc Marti	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 59; 36.4	+ 00: 17.5	8th
03	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 00: 00.4	+ 00: 41.5	6th
04th	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC	4: 02: 07.8	+ 02: 48.9	5
05	Urmo Aava	Kuldar Sikk	Citroën C4 WRC	4: 02: 49.6	+ 03: 30.7	4th
06th	Per-Gunnar Andersson	Jonas Andersson	Suzuki SX4 WRC	4: 06: 56.3	+ 07: 37.4	3
07th	Toni Gardemeister	Tomi Tuominen	Suzuki SX4 WRC	4: 07: 13.8	+ 07: 54.9	2
08th	Federico Villagra	Jorge Pérez Companc	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 07: 53.9	+ 08: 35.0	1
09	Henning Solberg	Cato Menkerud	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 08: 34.1	+ 09: 15.2
10	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 13: 07.9	+13: 49.0
PWRC
1 (10)	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 13: 07.9	+ 13: 49.0	10
2 (11)	Patrik Sandell	Emil Axelsson	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 13: 44.1	+ 14: 25.2	8th
3 (12)	Martin room	Silver Kutt	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 14: 05.7	+ 14: 46.8	6th
4 (13)	Hayden Paddon	John Kennard	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 14: 35.2	+ 15: 16.3	5
5 (14)	Juho Hänninen	Mikko Markkula	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 15: 25.2	+ 16: 06.3	4th
6 (15)	Jari Ketomaa	Miika Teiskonen	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 15: 54.0	+ 16: 35.1	3
7 (18)	Bernardo Sousa	Jorge Carvalho	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 20: 00.3	+ 20: 41.4	2
8 (19)	Stewart Taylor	Warwick Searle	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4: 20: 13.9	+ 20: 55.0	1

Special stages

Day	WP number	WP name	length	WP winner	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 (29 Aug)	WP1	Pirongia West 1	24.22 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	17: 08.1	084.8 km / h	Jari-Matti Latvala
	WP2	Waitomo 1 Part 1	25.81 km	Mikko Hirvonen	15: 12.5	102.0 km / h	Mikko Hirvonen
	WP3	Waitomo 1 Part 2	17.36 km	Mikko Hirvonen	14: 13.5	073.2 km / h
	WP4	Pirongia West 2	24.22 km	Sébastien Loeb	16: 35.8	087.6 km / h
	WP5	Waitomo 2 Part 1	25.85 km	Sébastien Loeb	14: 39.6	105.8 km / h
	WP6	Waitomo 2 Part 2	17.36 km	Sébastien Loeb	13: 37.8	076.4 km / h
	WP7	Mystery Creek Super Special 1	03.14 km	Mikko Hirvonen	03: 03.8	061.5 km / h
Day 2 (Aug 30)	WP8	Port Waikato	17.22 km	Henning Solberg	10: 02.2	102.9 km / h
	WP9	Possum	13.78 km	Sébastien Loeb	10: 39.2	077.6 km / h
	WP10	Franklin	31.58 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	22: 02.7	086.0 km / h
	WP11	Mystery Creek Super Special 2	03.14 km	Henning Solberg	02: 58.0	063.5 km / h
	WP12	Te Akau South	31.92 km	Henning Solberg	18: 37.0	102.9 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
	WP13	Te Akau North	32.36 km	Henning Solberg	17: 29.7	111.0 km / h	Jari-Matti Latvala
Day 3 (31 Aug)	09:23	Te Hutewai 1	11.23 km	Henning Solberg	08: 03.0	083.7 km / h
	WP15	Whaanga Coast 1	29.72 km	Henning Solberg	21: 26.4	083.2 km / h	Mikko Hirvonen
	WP16	Te Hutewai 2	11.23 km	Sébastien Loeb	07: 47.5	086.5 km / h
	WP17	Whaanga Coast 2	29.72 km	Sébastien Loeb	20: 47.0	085.8 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
	WP18	Mystery Creek Super Special 3	03.14 km	Henning Solberg	03: 00.6	062.6 km / h

Source:

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: Lucky victory for Loeb in New Zealand , accessed on January 31, 2016
2. ↑ ewrc-results.com: Stage results , accessed on October 11, 2015

Web links

Commons : World Rally Championship 2008  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website