Sunday midday wrap: Loeb still on top

Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb has extended his lead over fellow Citroen DS3 WRC driver Mikko Hirvonen following a wet morning on the final day of Brother Rally New Zealand.

But the real credit goes to Belgium’s Thierry Neuville who was on a flier this morning, posting two fastest stage times and successfully closing the gap on M-Sport Ford driver Ott Tanak who is desperately clinging onto fifth place. Neuville is now only 16.3s behind Estonia’s Tanak.

Ford World Rally Team’s Petter Solberg had a trouble-free morning to hold third at the wheel of a Ford Fiesta RS WRC.

“I did not want to take any risks,” explained the Norwegian driver at the end of stage 18. “The stages were very slippery and it would be easy to go off the road. I need the points this weekend, Mikko [Hirvonen] and Seb [Loeb] are too far ahead to catch in such little stage distance.”

Russia’s Evgeny Novikov is fourth in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC and MINI WRC Team’s Dani Sordo holds seventh after taking the spoils on the morning’s super special stage. Ford’s leading factory driver Jari-Matti Latvala is eighth, 1m 54.9s behind Sordo.

Portugal’s Armindo Araujo holds ninth with America’s Ken Block rounding off the top ten.

In the Super 2000 World Rally Championship, local driver Hayden Paddon continues to lead Sweden’s PG Andersson despite suffering time loss due to a broken rear suspension on his Skoda Fabia S2000.

Marcos Ligato continues to lead the Production World Rally Championship and remains on track for his first win in the support category since 2001.