SS17: Neuville continues his charge

Thierry Neuville continues to fly through the third day of Brother Rally New Zealand with the Belgian driver securing his second consecutive stage win.

Meanwhile, Frenchman Sebastien Loeb still leads Citroen Total World Rally Team’s Mikko Hirvonen in the overall leaderboard and has now extended his lead over his Finnish team-mate by 15.8s.

“We were just trying to drive as fast as we could,” said 24-year-old Neuville who is currently sixth. “We had a clear run but it was becoming more slippery towards the end of the stage. But we just kept pushing. Everything is feeling good for us this morning.”

M-Sport Ford driver Evgeny Novikov was second quickest through stage 17 in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC, completing the 17.94-kilometre test 4.7s adrift of pace-setter Neuville. Dani Sordo was third fastest at the wheel of his MINI John Cooper Works WRC.

Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala was the quickest factory driver to complete stage 17, 0.4s faster than Loeb who was fifth. Latvala remains eighth in the overall leaderboard.

In the Super 2000 World Rally Championship, Hayden Paddon is continuing to nurse his Skoda Fabia S2000 through the morning’s stages. “We have broken rear suspension which is very disappointing as we wanted to put on a good show for our fans,” said the Kiwi.