| The popular Finn was locked in a three-day battle on the island’s fast flowing gravel roads with Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb, eventually achieving a record-making fifth win – to become the most successful driver in the events 38 year history.
World Championship leader Gronholm cast off illness to deliver an incredible performance which, apart from his closest rival, Loeb, left the rest of the field in his wake.
This result puts a slightly increased gap of 10 points between Gronholm and Loeb, but with just four rounds between now and the beginning of December, all eyes will be on the forest stages of Wales, as the principality prepares to host what is increasingly looking like one of the closest World Championship finales in years.
Gronholm's win in New Zealand moves the BP-Ford World Rally Team further ahead in its quest to retain the FIA World Rally Championship manufacturers' title with its sixth win of the 2007 season. It now leads by 46 points with five rounds remaining.
BP-Ford team-mates and fellow Finns Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen were third in another Focus RS to seal the team's seventh double podium of the season. They remain third in the drivers' Championship.
Britain’s Matthew Wilson, driving for the Stobart M-Sport Ford RT, secured the 10th place overall.
Final positions:
| M. Gronholm/T Rautiainen |
FIN |
Ford Focus RS WRC 07 |
3.52:53.9 |
| S. Loeb/D. Elena |
F/MC |
Citroen C4 |
3.52:54.2 |
| M. Hirvonen/J. Lehtinen |
FIN |
Ford Focus RS WRC 07 |
3.54:36.7 |
| C.Atkinson/ S.Prevot |
AUS/B |
Subaru Impreza |
3.55:26.2 |
| J-M Latvala/M Anttila |
FIN |
Ford Focus RS WRC 06 |
3.55:30.8 |
| D. Sordo/M.Marti |
E |
Citroen C4 |
3.56:35.9 |
| P Solberg/P Mills |
N/GB |
Subaru Impreza WRC 2007 |
3.56:48.6 |
| U.Aava/K.Sikk |
EE |
Mitsubusihi Lancer |
4.02:10.2 |
| H.Solberg/K.Menkerud |
N |
Ford Focus RS WRC 06 |
4.02:48.5 |
| M Wilson/M Orr |
GB |
Ford Focus RS. WRC 06 |
4.03:13.8 |
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