Sebastien Loeb takes early Rally Finland lead
Sebastien Loeb holds the lead of Rally Finland at the end of day one, extending his advantage to 7.3 seconds with a blistering time on the final stage
The leaders were relatively evenly matched through the first two stages of the Thursday evening loop, but Citroen team leader Loeb pulled clear on Mynnila.
His team-mate Mikko Hirvonen and Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala share second place, the latter frustrated with his form so far.
Mads Ostberg got off to a very strong start in his Adapta Ford and is just 0.2s down on Latvala and Hirvonen in fourth overall.
World Rally Car rookie Thierry Neuville is also impressing in fifth, 1.5s behind Ostberg.
Ford's Petter Solberg started strongly and was second for a spell, but a slower time on SS3 dropped him to sixth.
Returnee Chris Atkinson holds seventh place in the Citroen usually driven by Olympic medallist Nasser Al-Attiyah.
Leading positions after SS3: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 15m07.1s 2. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 7.3s 3. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 7.3s 4. Mads Ostberg Adapta Ford + 7.5s 5. Thierry Neuville Citroen Junior + 9.0s 6. Petter Solberg Ford + 9.2s 7. Chris Atkinson Qatar Citroen + 15.6s 8. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford + 18.2s 9. Ott Tanak M-Sport Ford + 21.1s 10. Jari Ketomaa Autotek Ford + 33.1s
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