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Rossi Happy with WRC Rally Run
Written by: RACER Staff   http://www.racer.com
11/19/2006 - 07:00 PM
Auckland, New Zealand
 
Rossi's flirt with rallying continues to develop. (LAT Photo) » More Photos

Valentino Rossi described his run to 11th place in this past weekend's Rally New Zealand as "great fun" and declared himself content with his progress in his second World Rally Championship appearance.

The former MotoGP champion made a cautious start to the event and was only 36th quickest out of 42 competitors in the first stage of the rally. But Rossi gradually picked up his pace as he acclimatized to the Subaru Impreza and the changeable weather conditions.

He was substantially faster in his second runs through repeated stages, and was seventh quickest in the Mystery Creek superspecial on Saturday afternoon – ahead of factory Subaru drivers Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson. A few small spins were the only blemishes on an otherwise trouble-free drive.

This one-off outing was Rossi's first WRC appearance since his ill-fated Rally GB attempt in 2002, when he crashed out in the opening stage.
With that disappointment in mind, Rossi was delighted to reach the finish of the rally.

"I am at the end without big problems and also with the car not damaged – that is very important," he said.

"It was a real experience in a real World Championship rally. We tried to understand the road and the car, and just tried to improve. It was a hard job, but I enjoyed it a lot.

"My performance was becoming better. For sure I have work to do to be very fast but anyway we had great fun in the car so I'm happy."

Rossi was 20 minutes behind rally winner Marcus Gronholm at the end of the event, but only 18 seconds away from a top ten position, and eighth amongst the WRC cars.

WRC boss David Richards suggested last week that Rossi, who has also tested Formula 1 cars for Ferrari could choose to make a full-time switch to rallying when his motorcycling career comes to an end.