Rossi finishes 11th in Rally NZ.

Sunday's third and final day of Rally New Zealand saw five-times MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi gain two further positions to finish the penultimate round of the World Rally Championship 11th overall.

Weather and track conditions were extremely mixed and difficult throughout the gravel-based event but, after a cautious day one, Rossi had upped his pace during day two - setting three top-ten stage times, including an impressive seventh in the short Mystery Creek 'super special', as he climbed from 24th to 13th in the overall standings.

The Italian, driving a privately entered 2005-spec Impreza WRC, continued to gain confidence on the third and final day - but was unable to better that seventh place, although he did manage two tenth places and one ninth position from Sunday's six stages to finish just outside the top ten overall.

"I wanted to finish the rally and, at the same time, enjoy myself," said Valentino. "When Carlo [Cassina - co-driver] and I started SS1 we just said: 'We start and we look', but for sure we were being cautious. I was satisfied with the progress on Saturday but I didn't want to force the pace or take unnecessary risks. My feeling was very good on Sunday morning - maybe that is the reason why I was over enthusiastic and so I spun twice in Whaanga Coast 1."

Co-driver Cassina reckoned that his 'pupil' did very well, especially as it was his first proper outing in the WRC - Rossi only managed 17 kilometres before crashing out of Rally GB in 2002.

"On the stages around Hamilton on Sunday, on the fresh mud that covered the stages following last night's rain, the pace was a lot quicker and the times were coming to us without pushing too hard," he confirmed.

Pirelli rally manager, Mario Isola also had some kind words for the Italian and declared that his result was 'more than positive': "Eleventh place is an excellent result, especially when you consider that he was never aiming for raw speed, but instead to gain experience," he added.

Rossi, one of 11 drivers to start the event with a top spec 'WRC car', finished the 17 stage rally 20mins 38.8secs behind winner Marcus Gronholm (Ford), but missed out on a top ten placing by just 18.8 seconds. Factory Subaru driver Petter Solberg finished sixth, while team-mate Chris Atkinson retired with suspension damage on stage nine after hitting a rock.

After his promising performance in Rally NZ, speculation will inevitably increase as to whether Rossi will now make the full time switch to world championship rallying when he retires from MotoGP. However, any such move will be at least one season away - since Rossi has already confirmed that he will stay with Yamaha, in MotoGP, in 2007 - and the #46 indicated in New Zealand that he could stay on two wheels for several more seasons, having been re-motivated by his 2006 title loss.

Rossi will now return to Europe to compete in the Monza Rally show next week, when he will again drive a Pirelli-shod Subaru Impreza WRC car supplied by Prodrive, and take part in the final MotoGP test of 2006, at Jerez, from November 28-30.

To see more pictures of Rossi competing in Rally NZ simply CLICK HERE.