Hirvonen crashes out of rally lead

The Ford number one had won the first two full-length stages of the event and held a four-second lead over Petter Solberg.

But on the Urria stage, Hirvonen appears to have landed badly after a jump, struck a bank and rolled his Ford Focus several times, causing massive damage to the car. Both Hirvonen and co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen got out unhurt.

That has put Solberg into the lead, three seconds ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala in the remaining works Ford, but the Norwegian is trying to remain calm.

"It's a long rally," said Solberg. "I'm trying to be careful and not be a hero. But we've got a good chance."

Sebastien Loeb has also run into trouble, removing some of his Citroen's front bumper bodywork on SS3 and struggling with the handling thereafter, leaving him 9.4s off the pace in fourth, between Citroen Junior's Dani Sordo and new factory number two Sebastien Ogier.

"It's so fast here that aerodynamics are very important," Loeb said.

"The car is undriveable. Every corner I try to steer, the car is going straight. I have to turn in on the brakes. The car is impossible to drive. I was surprised that the car was like that. Incredible, it's missing all the [aero] effects."