The 2007

Rally New Zealand The Rally New Zealand is an annual rally race in New Zealand. It was first included as a round of the World Rally Championship in 1977. The race is famous for its fast flowing gravel roads which carry the competitors through forests and alongside ...

(''37th Propecia Rally New Zealand''), 11th round of

2007 World Rally Championship The 2007 World Rally Championship was the 35th season in the FIA World Rally Championship. The season began on 19 January, with the Monte Carlo Rally and ended on 2 December, with the Wales Rally GB. Citroën's Sébastien Loeb won his fourth c ...

, was run on 31 August to 2 September. After a tight battle for three days,

Marcus Grönholm Marcus Ulf Johan Grönholm (born February 5, 1968) is a Finnish former rally and rallycross driver, being part of a family of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland lineage. His son, Niclas Grönholm, is an upcoming FIA World Rallycross Cha ...

beat

Sébastien Loeb Sébastien Loeb (; born 26 February 1974) is a French professional rallying, rally, auto racing, racing and rallycross driver. He is the most successful driver in the World Rally Championship (WRC), having won the world championship a record nin ...

for the win by 0.3 seconds, making it the second-closest finish in WRC history (after 2011 Jordan Rally's 0.2s). This was the closest finish in the history of the World Rally Championship. The previous record was held by the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

Rally de Portugal The Rally de Portugal (formerly: Rallye de Portugal) is a rally competition held in Portugal. First held in 1967, the seventh running of the race, the 7º TAP Rallye de Portugal was the third event in the inaugural FIA World Rally Cham ...

, in which

Colin McRae Colin Steele McRae, (5 August 1968 – 15 September 2007) was a Scottish rally driver. He was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and in 1995 became the first British driver and the youngest person to win the World Rally Championship ...

took the win 2.1 seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz. __TOC__

Results

Special Stages

All dates and times are

NZST Time in New Zealand is divided by law into two standard time zones. The main islands use New Zealand Standard Time (NZST), 12 hours in advance of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) / military M (Mike), while the outlying Chatham Islands use Cha ...

(

UTC+12 UTC+12:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +12:00. As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Mata Utu, Majuro, Yaren, Funafuti, South Tarawa on Tarawa'' North Asia *Russia – Kamchatka Time ...

Championship standings after the event

Drivers' championship

Manufacturers' championship

References

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

2007