Loeb dominates day one in Spain

The Fords continue to hold third and fourth places, with Loeb's title rival Mikko Hirvonen behind his teammate Francois Duval.

"A very, very good day for us," said Loeb. "The car is going absolutely perfectly and the feeling is very good. I tried to really push hard to increase the gap to Dani, and at the moment it's more than 10 seconds, so that's very good."

Although Sordo's priority this weekend is to maximise Loeb's points gain by beating the Fords to second, he admitted he was frustrated that his team leader was getting away from him again.

"Not bad, but not really good," Sordo summarised at the end of the day. "I'm happy because I'm in front of the Fords, but I've tried to go faster."

Hirvonen and Duval have swapped places repeatedly during the day, but once again team returnee Duval managed to get back ahead of Ford's nominal number one by the end of the loop. Having completed the day a disappointing 44.1 seconds behind title rival Loeb, Hirvonen was beginning to resign himself to another defeat on asphalt.

"Once again, the Citroens just got away in the morning," he said. "The afternoon was a lot better for me, although it's still not enough. Now we'll try to minimise the damage and see what we can do."

Subaru's Petter Solberg remains on top of a close battle for fifth place, although he was not as happy with his car as he had been when charging from eighth to fifth earlier on.

"I've found it more difficult to drive in the afternoon," said the Norwegian. "We had some problems with braking, and we tried something in service and it didn't work so well."

He is now 13.7 seconds clear of PH Sport Citroen driver Urmo Aava, who is fending off the resurgent Jari-Matti Latvala (Stobart Ford) and Chris Atkinson (Subaru).

"I think some of the big boys were just sleeping this morning," said Aava. "Now they've woken up, and we're still doing our job."

After his spectacular start to the rally, 19-year-old Norweigan privateer Andreas Mikkelsen has slipped back to ninth as an engine problem developed, although he remained very satisfied with his performance.

"We can't complain - we're battling with Jari-Matti Latvala!" said Mikkelsen after SS5.

Matthew Wilson has been elevated to 10th in the second Stobart Ford after Suzuki's Toni Gardemeister lost two minutes in SS5 thanks to a puncture, with Conrad Rautenbach (PH Citroen) just outside the top ten ahead of former Junior champion Brice Tirabassi, who is making his WRC debut in a third works Subaru this weekend.

Leading positions after day one:

Pos  Driver     Car      Time
 1.  Loeb       Citroen  1h10:11.5
 2.  Sordo      Citroen   +   15.8
 3.  Duval      Ford      +   41.3
 4.  Hirvonen   Ford      +   44.1
 5.  P Solberg  Subaru    + 1:47.5
 6.  Aava       Citroen   + 2:01.2
 7.  Latvala    Ford      + 2:04.4
 8.  Atkinson   Subaru    + 2:13.4
 9.  Mikkelsen  Ford      + 2:24.9
10.  Wilson     Ford      + 3:42.1