Sordo meanwhile has never competed on this event, although the fact that the route is almost completely new this year should help him: “For me it might be good that everybody starts on a roughly equal step,” he continued. ”However, even if most of the route has changed, the drivers with experience of the New Zealand terrain will have a small advantage. They know the kind of feeling on those special roads. I will do my best during the recce to set good pace notes. I will try to make a clean rally and to reach the finish so I can get the maximum experience possible.”
BP Ford WRT:
[Marcus Gronholm, car #3 and
Mikko Hirvonen, car #4.]
Marcus Gronholm has said that BP Ford are taking nothing for granted this weekend, even though they only need to score three more points than Kronos to sew-up the manufacturers' championship. Although Gronholm had to concede defeat to
Sebastien Loeb in Australia in the battle for the drivers' title, after he failed to finish in the top three following an off on day one, Ford now have a strong lead in the constructors' having scored 167 points in total – 16 more than Kronos
Citroen, who have 151. Marcus is aware though that he can't afford to make another error like he did in Oz and while he will run first on the road and will have to sweep away the loose gravel, the Finn is still bullish.
"Of course I would like to win the rally because I start every event hoping to win. But my priority here has to be scoring good points for the team in the manufacturers' championship,” he noted. “Maybe I can do both though! I certainly have to be more careful than I was on the last rally in Australia when I crashed [out on the first ‘proper' stage of the event']. I must avoid making any stupid mistakes."
