Ogier impresses on day 1

EIGHTTIME world rally champion Sebastian Ogier yesterday showed his parttime status means nothing at Rally New Zealand.

Ogier (38) stormed into third after the first full day in Raglan, when just 7.2 seconds separated the top four drivers.

Estonian Ott Tanak leads after seven of 17 stages, but Britain’s Elfyn Evans is just 0.2sec adrift, and series leader Kalle Rovanpera fourth.

Tanak is fighting to stay in the World Rally Championship title race, as Rovanpera (21) needs to beat the Hyundai driver by just eight points to become the youngest world champion, with two rounds to go.

In just his fourth WRC rally of the season, Ogier finished the morning’s three special stages in fifth, 9.7sec off the pace of Tanak, but it was in the afternoon that the veteran showed his class.

Ogier swept the field in special stage 5 on the Whaanga Coast 2 course, ousting Evans by 8.4sec and leaving Tanak 17.2sec in his dust. That gave him a 1.3sec overall lead which he extended to 5.6sec by placing third in stage 6.

However, Ogier lost a chunk of his rear spoiler to a tree branch on the Te Akau South 2 track, slowing him in the final stage won by Tanak.

Kiwi Hayden Paddon led the WRC2 category to be ninth overall, with a 1min 37sec advantage over Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen.

In doing so, Paddon secured a record sixth New Zealand Rally Championship title.

Paddon had a typically smooth day on his home track, winning all six stages.

Van Gisbergen, 12th overall, said his ‘‘no expectations’’ approach was working wonders.

Twotime New Zealand champion Ben Hunt was forced to retire after spinning on the final stage. —