Drivers rally to the cause

Kalle Rovanpera¨ might be within a whisker of winning this year’s World Rally Championship, but he faces the prospect of a frustrating few days around Auckland.

Rovanpera¨, who turns 22 tomorrow but still has the appearance of a 15-year-old, needs to pick up eight more points than Ott Ta¨nak this weekend to take the title.

The Rally started yesterday evening with the ceremonial super special stage through the Auckland Domain when Ta¨ nak set the fastest time.

The 1.78km opening stage, at Pukekawa Auckland Domain, was a festival-like start to the rally in front of a sizeable crowd, following an official opening at the War Memorial Museum.

Kiwi ace Hayden Paddon, competing in the WRC2 category in his Hyundai i20N, was fittingly first to go in overcast and slippery conditions on the tarmac after a shower of rain.

His time of 1:52.4 was good enough to be fastest in WRC2, just under two seconds quicker than Supercars championship leader

Shane van Gisbergen, driving a Sˇ koda Fabia, who recorded a 1:54.2 to be second in the category.

As the tarmac continued to dry, the WRC drivers who went later in the field held a significant advantage following the heavy showers before the opening stage kicked off.

But Ford’s Craig Breen bucked that trend with a lightning-quick 1:46.7 despite going mid-pack of the WRC cars, good enough to finish second.

Hyundai’s Ta¨nak, who was the second last car to run, was almost a full second clear of Breen with his winning time of 1:45.8. Rovanpera¨, racing for Toyota Gazoo Racing, made a mistake on the Repco donut section to set him back to sixth in the opening stage with a 1:48.4.

Rovanpera¨ has won four of the 10 rallies this season, with two more to go after Rally NZ, in Spain and Japan.

But his lead in the championship will be his biggest disadvantage around Auckland as under WRC rules he’ll be the first car on each stage today and on New Zealand gravel roads, that means sweeping them clean in his Toyota Yaris for the cars behind him.

Toyota Gazoo

Racing team principal, Jari-Matti Latvala, who won

Rally NZ in 2010, says Rovanpera¨ will be praying for rain, to reduce that cleaning factor.

‘‘It is dependent on the weather,’’ Latvala said. ‘‘Normally in the Raglan area, Whaanga Coast, they have a lot of loose