Intro:

Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala of Finland won the qualifying stage on the Rally of New Zealand on Thursday (June 21st), 0.37 seconds ahead of his Citroen-driving countryman Mikko Hirvonen.

Script:

Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala posted the fastest time in qualifying for the Rally of New Zealand, the seventh round of the World Rally Championship (WRC), which starts on Friday (22 June).

Latvala, the 2010 New Zealand winner, headed a star-studded top-five on Thursday's qualifying stage in which Ford and Citroen drivers alternated placings.

His time of two minutes, 31.86 seconds was 0.37 seconds faster than Citroen's Mikko Hirvonen.

Ford's Petter Solberg was third, ahead of eight-time world champion Sebastien Loeb in a Citroen DS3.

Rising star Thierry Neuville, also in a Citroen, rounded out the top five.

Qualifying has been introduced in this year's World Rally Championship, allowing the fastest drivers to select their starting order for the first day of the rally.