Atkinson and Gronholm will restart

Championship leader Gronholm was the first big name to slip up, sliding into a ditch on Ibarrilla 2. The penalties incurred for missing the remainder of leg one have dropped him from third place to 23rd, some 20 minutes behind rally leader Petter Solberg. But Gronholm still hopes to salvage something from the event.

"I think I can still score manufacturer points here," he said. "It was my mistake. I was attacking too hard."

Atkinson stands a slightly better chance of getting back into the scoring positions. He rolled after hitting a rock in Guanajuato 2, falling from fourth to 19th as a consequence.

"It's very disappointing to retire from the leg, especially as things had been going to plan up to that point," said Atkinson - who had been instructed to pick up a steady top five finish in Mexico.

"The rock we hit was in the middle of the road. It looks like it broke the wheel rim, which badly affected the handling around the next corner.

"I could feel we had a problem as soon as I tried to brake. Then we slid wide into a ditch and rolled.

"The rally isn't over yet though. We have to pick ourselves up and concentrate on getting the best points finish we can."

Top 20 after leg one: 

Pos  Driver      Make        Time
 1.  P Solberg   Subaru      27:44.8
 2.  Hirvonen    Ford        + 4.8
 3.  Loeb        Citroen     + 9.5
 4.  Stohl       Peugeot     + 1:45.9
 5.  Sordo       Citroen     + 2:01.3
 6.  Wilson      Ford        + 2:56.2
 7.  MacHale     Ford        + 5:37.3
 8.  H Solberg   Peugeot     + 5:37.3
 9.  Arai        Subaru      + 7:22.8
10.  Trivino     Peugeot     + 8:26.4
11.  Ligato      Mitsubishi  + 8:58.6
12.  Al-Attiyah  Subaru      + 9:12.8
13.  Nutahara    Mitsubishi  + 12:20.9
14.  Baldacci    Mitsubishi  + 12:29.9
15.  Vojtech     Mitsubishi  + 12:36.8
16.  Latvala     Subaru      + 12:36.9
17.  Uspenskiy   Subaru      + 12:58.3
18.  Kuzaj       Subaru      + 15:26.0
19.  Atkinson    Subaru      + 15:33.7
20.  Thompson    Subaru      + 18:45.1