Conrad Rautenbach - Welcome to: Repco Rally New Zealand

Hamilton, New Zealand 

Rally New Zealand is one of the fastest rounds of the World Rally Championship – and an event unanimously loved by the driers. It's not hard to see why; the heavily cambered roads lend themselves to an attacking style, allowing the drivers to carry more speed through the bends. The gravely surface can make grip hard to find if the weather stays dry, but it also makes these roads among the most mechanically sympathetic on the calendar.

Run on the North Island, the event is based in the nation's fifth largest city, Hamilton, 150km south of Auckland. This will be the first time Conrad has competed – or even visited – these roads. He is the only Priority one or two driver who has never competed in the country known as the land of the long white cloud.

"After seeing so much footage of these fantastic roads, it's great to finally get here to have a crack at them. The roads are quite a bit more technical than I'd thought they would be.

The fast and flowing roads are fantastic, they're going to be awesome to drive on – but there's also a lot of technical, tight and twisty stuff in there which you've got to get right. If you run wide in one corner here, you could still be trying to gather it up two or three corners later. I'd say it's as technical as Rally Finland in places.

"The scenery is pretty stunning. It makes the massive flight from London worthwhile. I thought I knew a bit about long-haul flying, coming from Zimbabwe, but that's nothing compared with 24 hours on a plane. The roads and the views are worth it, but the weather's not. I had no idea it was going to be as cold and wet. The sun started shining today, let's hope it stays that way.

"We could really do with the sun shining to help with the tyres as well. We're running the hard compound Pirelli control tyre, so the hotter the better for the rubber. If it turns cold and rainy again, it will be really tough on the tyres.

"Shakedown went well this morning. The stage is used as the superspecial, so it's not representative of the roads we'll be on from tomorrow morning. That said, it was great to get back in the car and start sliding about on the gravel again."

Conrad finished his first ever all-asphalt event in a World Rally Car just outside the top 10 and learned plenty about what was needed to get the best out of the Citroen C4 WRC on a sealed surface.

Despite his lack of experience of the machinery on these stages, Rautenbach drove an inch-perfect rally, making significant changes to the car set-up and increasing his speed throughout the three days.

Age: 23

Nationality: Zimbabwean

Car: Citroen C4 WRC

WRC debut: Monte Carlo 2004

WRC starts: 39

Rally New Zealand starts: 0

FIA championships won: 1 (2007 FIA African Rally Championship)

Best WRC finish: 4th (Rally Argentina, 2008)

Co-driver: David Senior

Start: Hood Street, Hamilton 1830* Thursday August 28

Day one: 7 stages 138.00km

Day two: 6 stages 130.00km

Day three: 5 stages 85.04km

Finish: Mystery Creek, Hamilton 1430* Sunday August 31

- CR -