“It is going to be hard, there is a lot of loose around. For this event, I think I have to say that I will be happy to stay in touch with the leaders and make the podium,” said the Citroen driver after today's shakedown event in central Auckland, according to Autosport.
The reason why he feels so pessimistic about the rally is because he'll be road opener on Day 1, meaning he'll tackle all 9 stages on Friday without any prior sweeping of the dusty, gravely roads he's going to encounter. This will likely cost him a lot of time in the overall classification, whereas drivers like Mikko Hirvonen or Jari-Matti Latvala (placed 3rd and 4th respectively) can built a comfortable lead by the end of the day.
“Even if it rains, if it's windy, the road will dry really quickly and the road will clean. And it'll clean lots. Running behind Sebastien, he will clean it for me, but for the guys behind like (Sebastien) Ogier and Dani Sordo, it's going to be really clean,” said Loeb's championship rival Mikko Hirvonen, who hinted that the drivers starting after him will benefit from an even greater advantage in Day 1.
However, the Finn insisted that team tactics will not be scrapped completely during Days 2 and 3 of the event, as Citroen will try to place their drivers – Sordo and Sebastien Ogier – ahead of Loeb on Friday in order to give him a cleaner road in the next couple of days.
“I was first on the road on Saturday two years ago here. I think I had 40 seconds lead, but Sebastien still caught me in one day - the loose gravel can be really bad here,” added the Ford driver.
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