Not so bad

Italian motorcycle star Valentino Rossi rarely makes the same mistake twice, so he wasn't about to make a hasty exit from his second world rally championship (WRC) drive.

The seven times world motorcyling champion may have failed to win his sixth straight MotoGP title in Spain last month but his return to rally driving after a four-year hiatus went smoothly in the Rally of New Zealand yesterday.

Anxious to see out the first of three days, Rossi, known as The Doctor, prescribed himself a cautious, safety first approach – mindful that in his first WRC experience in Wales in 2002, he crashed early on the first day.

Rossi, driving an all black Subaru, was seeded 11th, if only to follow the big names over the graduated start line in Pirongia. And at the end of the first stage he was 24th overall, 10 minutes 55.1 seconds behind the leading Ford Focus of Finland's Marcus Gronholm.

Rossi spun out briefly during the first stage but that was his only scare as he opted to drive within his limited four-wheeled capabilities. He was neat and tidy, generally sticking to the middle of the road, and clearly not as committed as the experts ahead of him. "I had a little bit of a spin, it was more slippery than I thought, I was very cautious," Rossi said after a morning session complicated by steady overnight rain.

Rossi was severely tested by the 43.88km second stage: "It's very difficult, very long and takes a lot of concentration, it's like going to the airport in Bologna." However, he completed the circuit more assuredly second time round in the afternoon phase before closing with a trouble-free special stage sprint at Mystery Creek.

Rossi stuck to his game plan as the crowds gathered at rally headquarters in Mystery Creek and hardly set the pulses racing with a 3:07.7 run. Gronholm raced around in 2:59.8. Rossi said his goal was simply to have fun and make the finish line on Sunday, 12 more stages away. "We have arrived at the end (yesterday), so it is not so bad."