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Solberg dominates early stages

Petter Solberg has charged into a commanding early lead in the Rally Mexico

The former world champion benefited from being seventh in the running order and therefore getting better stage conditions than the championship leaders - who have swept the dust clear for the following cars.

Solberg capitalised on that advantage to build a 17.1s lead after the first four stages, while Citroen Junior's Sebastien Ogier made the best of his fifth place on the road to take second.

Title rivals Mikko Hirvonen and Sebastien Loeb have both been hampered by their position in the running order - but while Loeb has managed to at least stay in third for Citroen, half a minute behind Solberg, Hirvonen is a lowly sixth, nearly a minute off the pace.

The Ford driver confessed his driving had not been good enough on the opening stage, but after that felt the road conditions were simply impossible for him.

Loeb and Hirvonen's team-mates Dani Sordo and Jari-Matti Latvala hold fourth and fifth at present.

Stobart Ford's Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson complete the initial top eight, while Monster Ford's newcomer Ken Block has got his World Rally Championship campaign off to a very respectable start. The American is only 16s behind Wilson in ninth, and ahead of championship regular Federico Villagra (Munchi's Ford).

It was another bad start to a rally for Kimi Raikkonen, though. The Citroen Junior driver was slightly slowed when he clipped a rock and bent a steering component on SS1, then stopped for over half an hour on SS2 while he rectified a loose connection in the C4's fuel system.

Pos  Driver              Car       Time/Gap
 1.  Petter Solberg      Citroen   41m03.6s
 2.  Sebastien Ogier     Citroen    + 17.1s
 3.  Sebastien Loeb      Citroen    + 26.1s
 4.  Dani Sordo          Citroen    + 29.1s
 5.  Jari-Matti Latvala  Ford       + 40.3s
 6.  Mikko Hirvonen      Ford       + 55.2s
 7.  Henning Solberg     Ford     + 1m01.8s
 8.  Matthew Wilson      Ford     + 1m28.2s
 9.  Ken Block           Ford     + 1m45.6s
10.  Federico Villagra   Ford     + 2m26.5s

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