Day 1: Loeb holds lead

Loeb stayed out of trouble during the afternoon to remain the rally leader, finishing fourth fastest on Stages 4, 5 and 6 and third quickest on the day's final stage, SS7. Gronholm meanwhile was quicker than him in all but the last stage, where he dropped a second. But the Finn was fastest of all on SS6, making up 6.6s in that one stage alone. Clearly charging, Gronholm seems determined to exorcise the nightmare of his exclusion from the Cyprus Rally results where he finished first on the road.

World Champion Petter Solberg is third in his Subaru, but the Norwegian's day has not been without drama. He damaged a splitter on SS4 running through a water splash and lost more than 45s to stage winner Harri Rovanpera in the sister 307. Solberg managed to make running repairs at the end of the stage however to recover, but nevertheless he is now nearly 50s behind Loeb overall.

"It's been a difficult day let me tell you," said Solberg afterwards. "I tried to do my best, but the water splash thing wasn't good and we lost a lot of time there. Since then, we've been trying to make up time. We keep changing little things, but it seems nothing is making too much difference which is frustrating."

But if water got into Solberg's works, it was nothing compared to Markko Martin's problems. The Estonian factory Ford Focus driver was forced to watch another rally disappear in a cloud of steam after having trouble through two water features. His bonnet flew open in the same water splash as Solberg, losing two and a half minutes with ensuing overheating engine issues. Then, two stages later on SS6, his car stopped altogether after running through another one. Martin got the Focus going again, 50 minutes off the lead, and is now merely in the hunt for manufacturer points.

Last year's event winner Carlos Sainz is just six seconds behind third-placed Solberg. Back on form after his Acropolis nightmare, the Spaniard won SS5 and was never out of the top five fastest times this afternoon. Francois Duval in the second works Ford is shadowing the fight for third closely in fifth, with Rovanpera 30s back in sixth.

Mikko Hirvonen is seventh in the second Subaru after suffering a spin on SS4, while privateer Focus driver Janne Tuohino starts tomorrow in the last points position, a minute ahead of Petter Solberg's brother Henning.