Day 1: Gronholm leads; McRae crashes

Gronholm notched up seven out of nine stage wins and a 38-second lead, although it was perhaps the fact this was achieved without a significantly favourable running position through the stages which make it all the more impressive, as Peugeot team-mate Richard Burns, who is fourth, admitted.

"Marcus has been incredibly impressive," he said. "In the morning when it was a bit dry he was certainly helped by road position, but not since then. That's mighty impressive."

Burns, who ran first on the road, had expected to be in the lower reaches of the top 10, but lies fourth just behind Subaru's Petter Solberg.

Markko Martin has been the revelation of the day, running second in the new Ford Focus WRC 03, but even he admits he could do little about Gronholm today. "It's been like a dream for me," said Markko. "But Marcus is in a race of his own again."

The disappointment of the day was Colin McRae, who crashed out of the event on SS6 in his Citroen Xsara.

"It's a bad finish to a bad day," said McRae. "We broke the suspension and broke the dampers and there was no way that we could do three more stages."