Hirvonen dominates Japan leg one

This afternoon saw little action after SS6 was halted following a heavy accident for Francois Duval.

The Stobart Ford driver, who had just moved past his works team counterpart Jari-Matti Latvala to take second place, slid sideways into a metal barrier, causing substantial damage to his car and leaving his co-driver Patrick Pivato injured.

Pivato was trapped in the car initially and has been airlifted to hospital for treatment, although the team confirmed that he was conscious throughout.

The organisers had already decided to cancel the following SS7 as it had been hit by snow earlier this week, and with most of the field delayed behind Duval's accident, stage eight was also called off. The field therefore returned to the Sapporo Dome for the superspecials, meaning that the afternoon loop saw just 16 kilometres of competitive mileage for most drivers.

The day then ended in bizarre fashion as confusion in the time control at the superspecial saw inaccurate times issued and drivers taking to the stage in an incorrect order.

At one point, Loeb and his furious co-driver Daniel Elena refused to leave the time control to complete the second passage through the stage because the officials had not given the crew the required time card.

"After the finish line of the first stage they didn't understand anything, so they kept the time card and they didn't want to give it back to us," said Loeb. "They gave them to everybody, but not to me. Absolutely no marshal is speaking English, everybody is speaking Japanese and it's impossible to get anything understood."

Subaru's Chris Atkinson was one of several other drivers left perplexed.

"Some people have written the wrong things on the time card, so we just went around the stage for the fans and we'll sort it out later," said the Australian.

To add to the drama, rally leader Hirvonen picked up a puncture during his first run through the Sapporo Dome, but managed to change the tyre in just two minutes before returning to the stage, so continued without delay.

Prior to the accidents and disorganisation, Hirvonen was comfortably fastest in both SS5 and SS6, and was 20 seconds clear of Latvala, who was frustrated by his inability to keep up with his teammate.

"I'm trying as hard as I can and I think I'm doing good driving but the times are not good, they are not good at all," Latvala said after SS6. "We are not going that sideways, so I can't find the reason. The only thing I can think is that I should be driving like crazy through the ruts."

Before Duval's accident, Ford had held the one-two-three formation that they required to prolong the title battle until the Rally GB, but Loeb has now moved up to the third place that could bring him a record fifth championship this weekend.

However Citroen are now set to come under more pressure in the manufacturers' standings, with Loeb's teammate Dani Sordo having retired from fifth due to turbo problems early in SS6.

The chaos has allowed the Subarus to move up to fourth and fifth positions, with Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson now down to sixth - thanks in part to being given a scratch time for SS6 as he was the first to arrive at the scene of his teammates' accident.

The two Suzukis complete the current points-scoring places.

Leading positions after day one:

Pos  Driver                Car      Time
 1.  Mikko Hirvonen        Ford     42:40.8
 2.  Jari-Matti Latvala    Ford     +  26.2
 3.  Sebastien Loeb        Citroen  +  30.6
 4.  Chris Atkinson        Subaru   +1:00.3
 5.  Petter Solberg        Subaru   +1:02.0
 6.  Matthew Wilson        Ford     +1:11.2
 7.  Per-Gunnar Andersson  Suzuki   +1:11.6
 8.  Toni Gardemeister     Suzuki   +1:36.8
 9.  Henning Solberg       Ford     +1:46.6
10.  Jari Ketomaa          Subaru   +3:01.4