Day 1: Rovanpera in control

However, Ford's Markko Martin was the star of the final two stages. After losing time this morning with a hydraulic problem on the day's third stage. But he launched a fight back this afternoon, setting the fastest time on SS5 and the second-quickest time behind Rovanpera on SS6 rise to 12th overall.

Carlos Sainz sits in second place, after Hyundai's Armin Schwarz dropped down the order due to a service penalty. Behind Sainz sits the Ford of Francois Duval, confirming the team's expectations that they could compete on the rough event.

Tommi Makinen finished the day in fourth, ahead of Gilles Panizzi. The Peugeot star is more renowned for his pace on asphalt, but has been extremely competitive all day, setting the fourth best time on SS5, just 1.9s behind stage winner Martin.

Richard Burns had a quiet run to sixth, but he fared better than his world champion team-mate Marcus Gronholm. The Finn hit trouble this morning, but his nightmare continued on the day's final two stages. He lost 1m37s on SS5 and then dropped a whopping 4m28.2s on the final stage of the day. He is currently 14th overall, over 10m behind Rovanpera.