Repco Rally New Zealand 2008 Results Day One: Hirvonen leads as Loeb has problems on penultimate stage?

After the first day of Rally NZ Mikko Hirvonen to lead Sebastien Loeb by just under 30s. Hirvonen had built up a lead in the morning as the Fords benefitted from their road position.

Loeb hit back in the afternoon and took a 9.4s lead only for his starter motor to fail on the last but one stage and receiving a 30s penalty. Did the starter-motor fail? It has been suggested he dropped time for a better road position tomorrow as tactics come into play.

Hirv leads:

Hirvonen unsure if Citroen using tactics:

I don’t know if something was wrong or whether Citroen were playing tactics, but okay, in the end there wasn’t much I could do about it.”

Loeb denies tactics:

Loeb admitted his road position is good for tomorrow but denied tactics by Citroen:

For one time the regulations went in the right way to help me. Okay it’s not so bad because we are second on the road and it’s not good to be first. But we are 29 seconds back and that’s a big gap. So we will see how we get on. It’s a long day tomorrow.”

Dani Sordo was 3rd just a tenth of a second ahead of Latvala who so far is having a steady intelligent drive. Duval is 5th and getting used to the tyres and the Focus on gravel. Aava is 6th and 33s behind Duval while Petter is 7th as Subaru struggle.

Matt Wilson had gearbox woes:

Chris Atkinson rolled his S14 WRC out on SS4 while Henning had power steering problems with his Focus and dropped a mountain of time.

Atko will SupeRally tomorrow after this roll:

Henning suffered power steering problems:

Baldacci was the surprise PWRC leader ahead of Prokop as championship leaders Hanninen and Aigner both lost much time today and are down the leaderboard.

Rally NZ Leaderboard after Day1:

Hirvonen  1.34.44.3
Loeb  +27.8 (diff from 1st)
Sordo +30.0
Latvala  +30.1
Duval  +1.27.9
Aava  +2.01.3
P Solberg  +2.25.8
Andersson  +2.50.5
Gardemeister  +3.48.0
Villagra  +4.47.5

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• Rally New Zealand 2008 Day 2 Results: Latvala leads as tactics come into play leaving four drivers in with a shout come the final day
• Repco Rally NZ Day 1 Video: Seb Loeb’s starter-motor failed on the penultimate stage?
• Rallye Deutschland 2008 Day 2 Results: Loeb fastest on all but one stage, Duval 3rd as Hirvonen punctures, Latvala rolls and Meeke dominates S1600