Motorsport: Run a breeze with flapping door

Matthew Wilson of Great Britain and co-driver Scott Martin in their Ford Focus RS WRC. Photo / Getty Images

Lead on first day of Rally New Zealand changes four times, with Solberg on top.

The big news from day one of Rally New Zealand, round five of the WRC, was championship leader Sebastien Loeb getting it wrong early in stage four, Cassidy, yesterday morning.

Loeb lost the rear end of the car on loose gravel on the approach to a single-lane bridge and T-boned his car into the railing, almost destroying the left-hand door.

After a brief stop to try to fix the door shut, Loeb showed why he's a six-time world champion by continuing at race pace with the door flapping in the breeze towards the end of the stage.

"The back of the car slid and hit the bridge," said Loeb. "I thought it was okay, so we drove on, but it wasn't. I knew it was just a remote service after so I had to keep the door.

"I stopped to try and close the door. I couldn't so I held it closed." He lost 1min 22sec and dropped to eighth in the standings.

The lead during the first day's racing changed hands four times, with Citroen driver Petter Solberg coming out on top from Jari-Matti Latvala, Sebastien Ogier and Dani Sordo.

Loeb managed to climb his way back up to seventh by the time the drivers arrived back in Auckland before the super special stage at the Auckland Domain.

Solberg jumped out of the gate at the beginning of the day and after the Waipu Cove stage led the rally from Ogier and Latvala with Loeb in fourth.

Rally New Zealand rookie Ogier won stage two, with Sordo moving to the top after stage three. He remained fastest heading into the remote service in Whangarei after stage four ahead of Ogier, Latvala and Solberg.

"I'm a little bit over the moon at the moment and very happy where we are now. It's been an unbelievable race so far and with Sebastien hitting the bridge makes it interesting. I don't want to catch Sordo too much as he has to start the stages first. I'd like to stay where I am for tomorrow," said Solberg.

Ogier took over the lead after stage five, being 7.6secs faster than Sordo and half a second quicker than Loeb.

Ogier won his third stage of the day to extend his lead after stage six. The lead changed again after stage seven when Latvala moved ahead of Ogier and Solberg.

Loeb was fastest but remained 1min 23sec behind the leader. Solberg's hope of starting today down the field ended when he finished stage eight the fastest and inherited the rally lead from Latvala and Ogier by 1.5sec.

"I got it a bit wrong at one stage but second is still good," said Latvala.

With the Auckland Domain Super Special stage to run, only 6.7sec separates the top four drivers.

Best New Zealander at the end of day one's gravel stages was Mark Tapper, who goes into today's racing 12th on the road and 4mins 42secs behind Solberg. Defending New Zealand rally champion Hayden Paddon leads the PWRC class and is 15th overall.

"It's been a good day and we haven't been pushing too hard. It's great for the country with three Kiwis in the top three [Emma Gilmore is second and Kingsley Thompson third]. But it's a long way to go," said Paddon. "The tyres were going off a bit and it got interesting if you got off the racing line." Two-time PWRC champion Toshi Arai's tilt at winning took a severe hammering when he broke a right-rear cross member after hitting a bridge on stage three.