Hirvonen takes the lead in Portugal

Citroen's Dani Sordo had been ahead going into the lunchtime service, but remarkably the Spaniard repeated the error his team leader Sebastien Loeb had made this morning and went off the road on the opening corner of the Ourique stage when it was re-run at the start of the loop.

That cost Sordo 20 seconds and allowed Hirvonen to make a break at the front of the field. The Ford driver resisted the temptation to drive tactically on the final stage and will be first on the road tomorrow, but he has established a 15s lead over the recovering Sordo.

After his error this morning, Loeb was able to make limited progress while running first on the dusty surface. He improved from seventh to third during the course of the day, but is 18s behind leader Hirvonen.

On his return to the World Rally Championship after over a year away, Marcus Gronholm (Prodrive Subaru) ran second until losing 20s on the final stage of the day, where he had to pass Khalid Al Qassimi's slowing Ford. That delay, plus a shock absorber problem and a slightly unsuccessful attempt at tactics, dropped Gronholm to fourth, but he is only 8s behind Loeb and will benefit from a better road position tomorrow.

Petter Solberg completes the top five in his self-run Citroen Xsara, and has steadied his deficit to the leaders at 42s, while also pulling clear of the battle for sixth.

Citroen Junior's Sebastien Ogier has improved his pace as the leg progressed and has now moved past his team-mate Evgeny Novikov and Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson to break into the top six.

Hampered by brake problems this morning, Stobart Ford's Henning Solberg was back on the pace for the repeat loop and has caught Novikov, ending the day just 0.1s behind the young Russian.

Mads Ostberg completes the top ten for Adapta Subaru, a comfortable distance clear of Citroen Junior's Conrad Rautenbach, who has driven a low-key rally after his shakedown crash.

Leading positions after day one:

Pos  Driver           Car      Time
 1.  Mikko Hirvonen   Ford     1h24m12.6
 2.  Dani Sordo       Citroen  +   15.0s
 3.  Sebastien Loeb   Citroen  +   18.0s
 4.  Marcus Gronholm  Subaru   +   25.9s
 5.  Petter Solberg   Citroen  +   42.2s
 6.  Sebastien Ogier  Citroen  + 1m04.0s
 7.  Matthew Wilson   Ford     + 1m14.6s
 8.  Evgeny Novikov   Citroen  + 1m33.7s
 9.  Henning Solberg  Ford     + 1m33.8s
10.  Mads Ostberg     Subaru   + 2m42.1s