Petter Solberg finished the day in seventh position and despite setting the fourth fastest time in SS3 was again unhappy with the handling of his Subaru Impreza WRC.
‘Hollywood' said that he was doing the best he could with the car but just didn't have the ‘feeling' to be able to really push, consequently his time in the second run through Pirongia West, was the exception rather than the norm – although he was third best in the short SSS.
Petter's brother, Henning rounds out the provisional points' scorers, 28.7 seconds behind in his Ford. Henning lost a bit of time on the first test of the day with a double puncture after hitting a bank and was not pleased with the steering on his Focus, which he described as ‘difficult'.
Suzuki's Junior Rally Championship runner
Urmo Aava was ninth, in his privately entered Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05. The Estonian conceded that he was finding it tough on the tests and finished up more than a minute off Henning.
Stobart Ford ‘third'
Matthew Wilson was next up in tenth, the Englishman having had a bad start, after going off on the first stage. Wilson damaged his car's bonnet in the incident in SS1 which then bounced open on and off throughout the following stage and cost him a fair bit of time.
Of the other ‘works' drivers, Munchi's Ford's
Federico Villagra lies in eleventh, while his team-mate and team leader, Luis-Perez Companc finished the day outside the top twenty.
Companc, like Wilson, went off in the first test of the day. However while Wilson only lost 20 seconds, Luis struggled to get back on the road and he dropped more than 6 minutes.
Subaru's Xavier Pons and OMV Kronos
Citroen's Manfred Stohl were the two big retirements, both going out in the second loop.
Pons went off 3 kilometres into SS3, when he slid wide on a raised right-hand corner and left the road. The car was undamaged in the incident, but he was unable to re-join after his Impreza became beached.
Xavier subsequently blamed his pace-notes for the error and he will now re-join the fold on Saturday under the SupeRally.
Stohl meanwhile joined Pons on the sidelines on the next stage when he crashed out in his Xsara WRC. It is not yet known if the Austrian will be able re-start.
