Stage wins prove MINI potential, says Wilcock

Prodrive WRC Team principal Dave Wilcock says Dani Sordo’s capture of two stage wins on the Brother Rally New Zealand today was a clear demonstration of the pace of the MINI John Cooper Works WRC.

Sordo was quickest on both runs through SSS Auckland Domain to secure sixth overall on the FIA World Rally Championship round, his first appearance in Prodrive’s revamped MINI since Vodafone Rally de Portugal earlier this season.

“It has been a good day for Dani and the team,” said Wilcock. “Two stage wins, two top threes and the remainder in the top six is the kind of pace we had been looking for throughout the event. However, it was always going to be difficult to recover from the wrong tyre choice on Friday and even though the car ran faultlessly all weekend after the minor gearbox sensor issue on the first couple of stages, it proved very difficult to make up this lost time.”

Sordo said: “Today has been good. I had hoped the soft tyres would have been better in the rain, but still it was nice to win the two stages, particularly in front of all the MINI fans. I think we had all hoped this rally would have been a little better for us, but the car has been very good and now I am looking forward to having a much better fight on Tarmac in Germany [in August].”

MINI enjoyed further success in New Zealand with both WRC Team MINI Portugal drivers, Armindo Araujo and Paulo Nobre, completing all 22 stages to finish eighth and 17th respectively. Araujo’s performance marked his first WRC points since Rally Guanajuato Mexico in March.