Motorsport: Late summer shines on Frenchman

The Indian summer contributed to a French triumph as Sebastien Loeb drove his Citroen to a convincing Rally New Zealand victory.

On the bone-hard roads of Northland and the Waikato over three days, Loeb had the right Michelin tyres and a driving style, honed on asphalt, which made the most of conditions that had rivals conceding defeat with a couple of days to go.

At the finish, the 31-year-old reigning world champion had a 49.8s margin over Finn Marcus Gronholm in a Peugeot, with last year's winner, Subaru's Petter Solberg, a further 18.9s back in third place.

Norwegian Solberg still leads the drivers' championship after four rounds by one point from Loeb, with Peugeot's Markko Martin two points further back. Peugeot leads the manufacturers' championship by 12 points from Citroen.

Young Aucklander Mark Tapper was the first Kiwi home in 22nd place in his Mitsubishi, despite losing time in the last stage with a broken wheel hub and limping back from Raglan to Auckland for the finish. He later survived a stewards' inquiry into an alleged tyre infringement.

World championship teams can no longer bring mountains of tyres to every round. They must make choices in advance and are limited in their changes during the event. Nobody could have predicted the heat of the past few days, but Michelin and Citroen guessed right with a hard composition version, which allowed Loeb to dominate.

"Last year we were not really fighting for the victory but for fourth place," said Loeb. "At Citroen we have worked over the year on this type of gravel. We changed a bit of everything since last year.

"We changed the suspension, the engine and we also have some new versions of the tyre. This means the car is really feeling perfect and it's looking good for the future."

Gronholm, who was second here last year, admitted that he realised as early as Friday afternoon that winning was unlikely.

"On the second loop of the first day we could see that Sebastien was too fast," he said.

Solberg, who had the disadvantage of being first on the road on the opening day, was more philosophical: "I'm very happy, actually. My plan for this rally was third or fourth place and we've come away with some good points and the lead in the championship. I'm feeling very positive about the championship now."

Francois Duval picked up his first points of the year for Citroen in fourth place, Martin slipped into fifth ahead of Ford's Toni Gardemeister on the last stage and Aussie rookie Chris Atkinson also picked up his first points for Subaru in seventh.

Another Australian, Cody Crocker, whose Subaru is prepared by Possum Bourne Motorsport in Pukekohe, was the leading Group N competitor in 12th place overall, seven seconds ahead of the top world production car championship contender, Spanish Mitsubishi driver Xavier Pons.

Pons recovered from a slow start to surge up the field and overtake the championship leader, Subaru's Toshi Arai, over the closing stages.

Tapper's 22nd placing was good enough for 10th in the Group N class ahead of several contenders in the world production car championship.

He was the second Kiwi behind Chris West on the first day of the rally, but moved ahead of the defending national champion when the turbo in West's Subaru failed, putting him out of the rally.

Dunedin's Emma Gilmour, fourth of the championship contenders on the first day, was second on Saturday and is second in the championship 12 points behind Tapper and 11 ahead of fellow Dunedinite Tom Pritchard. West's 32 points from the first day leaves him in fourth place.

Gilmour's 29th placing overall after three days meant she was the leading woman driver, well ahead of England's experienced Natalie Barratt, a competitor in the world production championship.

Among the casualties yesterday were Mitsubishi's Harri Rovanpera, who retired on the final stage back to Auckland with no rubber on his tyres, and Skoda's Janne Tuohino, who blew a turbo.

Marty Roestenburg put his Mitsubishi off the road with two stages to go and leading Subaru production car drivers Mark Higgins and Gabriel Pozzo had mechanical problems before the final Whaanga Coast stage.