Loeb commands Cyprus day one

He backed off slightly as rain fell this afternoon, but believes he is in a good position for Saturday, when he will have to run first on dusty gravel roads.

"I was a bit too careful in the rain in some places," said Loeb. "It's the last stage of the day and I didn't want to make any mistakes as I have a good lead. I didn't take big risks.

"Tomorrow we'll have to clean the road but if it's raining maybe it will not be so bad. I don't know what we'll see tomorrow, but I'll try to continue like this."

Dani Sordo is maintaining Citroen's one-two formation. The Spaniard lost time to the chasing Mikko Hirvonen on SS4, before re-establishing a 19s cushion thanks to a stage win on SS6.

Although Ford driver Hirvonen was disappointed by the one minute deficit to Loeb, he was relatively satisfied with his afternoon performance, having minimised the time loss after a poor morning.

"The afternoon was good, we lost maybe 14s to Sebastien, which is acceptable," he said. "But in the morning we just didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to drive in these conditions with gravel tyres."

Hirvonen will have the advantage of a cleaner road surface tomorrow, but isn't confident about his chances of closing on Loeb.

"It's going to be really tough," he admitted. "Especially if it rains, Sebastien will be in a really good position for tomorrow. It's going to be difficult to catch him."

Jari-Matti Latvala is just 8.6s behind Hirvonen in the second Ford.

Petter Solberg now runs a lonely fifth in his Citroen Xsara after sparring partner Sebastien Ogier (Citroen Junior) lost time with a startline stall and then a spin on SS4. The Junior champion remains sixth, ahead of his team-mate Evgeny Novikov, who has pulled away from eighth-placed Matthew Wilson (Stobart Ford).

In the third Citroen Junior car, Conrad Rautenbach has narrowed the gap to Wilson to just 9.4s, while Munchi's Ford's Federico Villagra reclaimed 10th from works Ford driver Khalid Al-Qassimi in today's final stage after a day-long battle between the pair.

Armindo Araujo has maintained his half-minute cushion over nearest Production rival Patrik Sandell, ahead of Simone Campedelli and Nassar Al-Attiyah.

Martin Prokop is on course for Junior WRC victory, leading the class by three and a half minutes due to rivals Michal Kosciuszko and Aaron Bukart hitting trouble earlier in the day.

Leading positions after day one:

Pos  Driver              Car      Time
 1.  Sebastien Loeb      Citroen  1h37:46.3
 2.  Dani Sordo          Citroen   +   41.8
 3.  Mikko Hirvonen      Ford      + 1:00.2
 4.  Jari-Matti Latvala  Ford      + 1:08.3
 5.  Petter Solberg      Citroen   + 2:27.1
 6.  Sebastien Ogier     Citroen   + 3:03.0
 7.  Evgeny Novikov      Citroen   + 3:16.0
 8.  Matthew Wilson      Ford      + 4:25.9
 9.  Conrad Rautenbach   Citroen   + 4:35.3
10.  Federico Villagra   Ford      + 5:02.0