Photo by: Ford Motor Company
The Austrian driver completed a first adjustment day on board the Ford Fiesta WRC and he expects to push a bit harder tomorrow.
Manfred Stohl is officially back in the FIA World Rally Championship and after completing the first leg of Rally New Zealand, seventh round of the season, the Austrian driver managed to claim the 11th position overall.
On board the Ford Fiesta WRC entered under the Brazil World Rally Team and after a logical period of adjustment Sothl is ready to take a step forward in an event that has historically suited him.
This was the first time for Manfred and his co-driver Ilka Minor out in a new generation World Rally Cars and they took this first Day to adjust to the car and the notes while trying to push as harder as they could in really slippery conditions for moments.
Weather was unpredictable and the gambling on rain prevailed practically during the whole first day of action. Road conditions constantly changed even throughout the same stage from wet to dry sections and the tyre choice was crucial to move forward in the classification.
"It was very nice out there and I really enjoyed driving these stages. I did like road conditions, the problem was that I had to adjust myself to the notes and everything, but the car has worked fine" said Manfred.
As if that wasn't enough, the drivers were facing one of the longest legs of the season (209.60km) -with most of the stages edging 30km- and just had a 15-minute short remote service zone to make repairs.
Stohl was involved in a tight and intense battle against Ken Block (Ford) for the 10th position during the last group of stages ; however, a drive shaft problem in the last stage prevented him from remaining in the top 10 point positions. "I am very happy to have finished the day, especially after that problem. We only had two-wheel drive" stated Manfred.
Tomorrow's route. For the second day of action the drivers will head to the Northland region with stages spread through the Whangarei and Kaipara districts, and with another remote service, this time in Whangarei. The leg has three stages scheduled for the start and with only the last two ones to be repeated during the afternoon's section, which also includes two other speed tests to be run in one opportunity. This leg will be considerably shorter than the one ran today, and the drivers will tackle 143.01km.
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Stohl launches electric customer programme with Ford support
Electric rallycross car makes winning debut with Stohl
Stohl to lead historic debut of electric rallycross car
Mercedes taking action to cure F1 car's “underlying balance” problem
Quartararo: Yamaha MotoGP satellite team "must be an extension of the factory"
Pedrosa says 'unexpected' MotoGP return pushed by "interesting" testing data
Lamborghini not concerned over Le Mans reliability despite rain-interrupted test
The eight minutes of madness that saw Ogier strike in Croatia
How Rovanpera showed his class above his WRC rivals in Kenya
How a new 'old' challenge is capturing the spirit of British rallying lore
How Lappi survived Swedish snow carnage to snap his lengthy WRC drought
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments