The shakedown took place on a 1.5km asphalt road in the Auckland Domain, located in the centre of the New Zealand city. Unlike other shakedowns before, the road will actually be included in one of the special stages of the rally. To be more precise, it will count as the route for SS9, which will close the first day of running in New Zealand this weekend.
However, the results of the shakedown have little importance in terms of drivers' pace, as the road featured an asphalt surface. Since the rally will be tackled on gravel (for the majority of the stages), the pre-event running was more of a change to test the cars' set-ups before the big battle on Friday.
“I was determined to set the fastest time because in the past on this surface I've lost out to the pace of the Citroens. We struggled on the asphalt Super Special in Australia last year but now I think we've found a set-up which gives us an edge,” said Latvala, after posting his best time in his 6th running of the 1.5km route.
“It wasn't a difficult Shakedown but we weren't able to get much of a feeling for the event on it. Normally Shakedown gives us a final chance to adjust the set-up, but with no pre-event test we haven't been able to do anything much. It should be okay though, we're not changing the set-up too much from rally to rally,” added Loeb.
The Top 8 drivers after the shakedown run was completed with 4th place Petter Solberg, followed by Dani Sordo and Henning Solberg (who posted the same time), Sebastien Ogier, Federico Villagra and Matthew Wilson.
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