Nobre pleased with day-two progress

Brazil’s Paulo Nobre is feeling pleased with his performance in the MINI John Cooper Works WRC following the first two days of action on Brother Rally New Zealand, round seven of the FIA World Rally Championship.

Despite being first on the road and acting as a road-sweeper for those who hold an advantage of running further down the starting order, Nobre holds 18th place for WRC Team MINI Portugal. The charismatic South American is 1m50.5s behind current Production Car World Rally Championship leader Marcos Ligato going into the final day.

“So far, so good,” said Nobre at the end of today’s stages that were based close to the northern city of Whangerai. “The stages this morning have been typical of New Zealand. Jari-Matti Latvala described that the car has the ability to dance on the road and he is right! This is the only place in the world where you can do that. It is very special.”

Nobre added: “The car is fantastic. I really enjoy my “little green pig” - it works well over here and I am very satisfied.”

Fellow MINI driver Armindo Araujo backed up Nobre’s comments about the MINI John Cooper Works WRC: “I am feeling very confident because these sort of stages work well with this car. The MINI works well on smooth fast stages so an event like New Zealand is perfect for us,” explained the Portuguese driver.