The Kiwi ended Friday's running third in the second-tier WRC2 division, 1:37.0s in arrears of class leader Hayden Paddon.<\/p>\n
Stan Sport is the only place to watch the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship.<\/strong><\/em> All the action streaming ad-free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n That margin might have been smaller if not for a spin that saw him lose his front bumper in the process on the first run through Te Akau North (SS4).<\/p>\n Fortunately, he escaped with only cosmetic damage and ended the longest day of the rally in sight of the podium.<\/p>\n "I didn't crash it that time, so that was pretty good," said van Gisbergen at the end of the second pass of Te Akau North (SS7).<\/p>\n "Man, what an awesome day. I'm just having a ball, living my dream. Looking forward to the next to two days. Hopefully get better and tidy up a few mistakes.\u00a0<\/p>\n "I'm stoked to have Glenn [Weston, co-driver] here and we've had an awesome day. Really, really cool."<\/p>\n Ironically, the bumper found its way into the hands of one of his sponsors watching from the side of the road.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Panthers star sledges Eels ahead of decider<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Devastating' illness that ruined NRL star's Olympic dream<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Magpies star makes decisive contract call<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Earlier in the day, van Gisbergen spoke of the challenge he faced as the Te Akau South (SS6) stage was wet in parts and dry in others.<\/p>\n "I had my own issues this morning. As you can see, we have no front bumper," he explained.<\/p>\n "That was epic. It was very hard to read. I'm sort of learning as I go with the mixed conditions.<\/p>\n "Man, it's been so fun. The Whaanga Coast before was some of the most fun I've had in a race car."<\/p>\n Van Gisbergen's countryman Paddon ended day one in the lead of WRC2 and one minute clear of Kajetan Kajetanowicz of Poland.<\/p>\n Outside of the top three, Australia's Harry Bates endured a tough day. He copped a puncture in the penultimate stage of the day, which dropped him down the order.<\/p>\n In the overall WRC classification, Ott Tanak ended the day on top for Hyundai after a turbulent afternoon. The Estonian had been as low as fourth but rose to the lead on SS4.\u00a0<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1575330165038927872<\/a><\/p>\n A storming effort by Sebastian Ogier put the Toyota driver to the top of the pile at the end of SS5, but a mistake in SS6 resulted in the Frenchman plucking his rear wing from his car.<\/p>\n Such was the reduction in downforce that Ogier subsequently recorded his worst stage time of the day, ending SS7 that followed down in seventh.<\/p>\n Tanak, meanwhile, topped the stage and leapt to the lead of the rally while Ogier fell to third, 6.7 seconds in arrears.<\/p>\n Elfyn Evans was the quiet achiever of the day in the other Toyota, ending up second and just 0.2s away from Tanak.\u00a0<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/HMSGOfficial\/status\/1575712146482044929<\/a><\/p>\n Having been 18.2 seconds down at the end of SS5, points leader Kalle Rovanpera recovered to fourth and wound up just 7.2 seconds off the lead.<\/p>\n Gus Greensmith was fourth and the leading Ford entry after his teammate Craig Breen crashed out on SS3.<\/p>\n After 160km of running on Friday, the rally will take in six stages totalling 88km on Saturday while Sunday will take in just 31km.<\/p>\n The first and second run through Kaipara Hills will be broadcast live and ad-free on Stan Sport at 5am and 11am on Saturday.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
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