Gronholm closes on NZ victory

Gronholm has led throughout the rally, setting the fastest time in 11 of the 14 stages held so far, including all three featured in this morning's rain-hit penultimate loop. He suggested - perhaps mischievously - that he had to keep pushing to prepare himself for next season's event, when the competition should be rather stronger.

"I'm checking the roads for next year," he said. "We'll have to fight next year so we have to check."

Hirvonen was only 1.8 seconds slower than Gronholm through the famous 30km Whaanga Coast stage, despite dismissing his pace notes for the stage as "crap". Not that Hirvonen was too concerned about his actual speed with second place virtually certain.

"It doesn't matter so much about the stage times now," he said. "The main thing is not to do any mistakes. I've been in this position so many times this year that it's okay now, I can still enjoy it."

Manfred Stohl took control of the close battle for third. He had the pace to pull away from fourth-placed Dani Sordo, but it looked like Sordo's Kronos Citroen teammate Xavier Pons might become the greater threat as he set the second quickest time in SS13 and closed to within six seconds of Sordo.

Unfortunately for Pons, an error in Whaanga Coast then cost him crucial ground.

"I had a spin in the middle of the stage," Pons explained. "It's very narrow so I lost a lot of time trying to reverse. It's not good for us. But it's important to continue."

Petter Solberg remains a distant sixth, and is running out of position after struggling to get his Subaru started prior to the opening stage. When Solberg did get going, his season-long handling difficulties continued to plague him.

"The car was okay at the start," he said after SS14, "and then it just goes away completely. It just seizes up.

"The car has good grip at the rear, but at the front it has zero."

Valentino Rossi has moved up to 12th overall, thanks mainly to attrition amongst the leading Production class cars. The MotoGP star was within 15 and 21 seconds respectively of the fastest times in SS12 and SS13, but then found Whaanga Coast somewhat tougher.

"It's the most difficult (stage) of the rally - very, very difficult," said Rossi. "I spun two times. The car was difficult to control because there was a lot of mud. It's a real rally stage."

Leading positions after SS14:

Pos  Driver         Make              Time
 1.  Gronholm       Ford        3h 29:32.1
 2.  Hirvonen       Ford            + 55.5
 3.  Stohl          Peugeot       + 2:28.9
 4.  Sordo          Citroen       + 2:58.7
 5.  Pons           Citroen       + 3:08.1
 6.  P Solberg      Subaru        + 4:47.3
 7.  Perez Companc  Ford          + 9:53.9
 8.  Latvala        Subaru       + 14:13.2
 9.  Hanninen       Mitsubishi   + 14:50.9
10.  Mason          Subaru       + 17:59.7