"I have always enjoyed this rally ever since I first came here in 2002. The lush green backdrop to the stages is magnificent. The stages are fast and technically demanding, but the cars don't suffer. From the driving point of view, it's certainly one of my favourite events. We narrowly missed out on victory last year by just three-tenths of a second after one of the most thrilling fights the WRC has ever seen. I won't be able to take revenge this time, though, because Marcus Gronholm isn't around any more. It nonetheless promises to be a very close three days of competition.
"We will be first on the road, but just how big a handicap that turns out to be will depend on how damp the conditions are. There are quite a few stages that we will only contest once, so we potentially stand to lose quite a lot of time. That said, the fact that we will be first on the road on day one means that we are on top in the championship, and we intend to do all we can to defend that lead! The key will be to find a set-up for our C4 WRC that works with the Pirelli Hard tyre. The set-up we ran in Finland was very good and I had a great feeling with my car. It will be up to us to find ourselves in the same sort of position in New Zealand."
Mikko Hirvonen [BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT]:
"The roads in New Zealand have a good rhythm to them and they are so smooth that there's no need to worry about damaging the car on rocks. The cambered corners encourage attacking driving but it's important not to position the car on the wrong side of the camber coming into a corner. If that happens then the car ends up sliding wide or perhaps not even making it round at all.
