Day 1: Solberg rules

But it was Ford's Francois Duval who took the final stage win to bring Solberg's mighty run to an end. The Belgian headed off the challenge of Daniel Carlsson in his privateer Peugeot 206 by nearly 3s while fellow Swede Manfred Stohl was third quickest less than a second down on Carlsson.

Solberg had to make do with the fourth quickest time but it mattered not for he has an overall lead now of 55.7s from Peugeot's Harri Rovanpera, who was fifth quickest in the stage.

Team-mate Marcus Gronholm rounded out the top six in the stage dropping down to fourth in the overall standings behind Duval and 1m03s adrift of Solberg. Citroen's Sebastien Loeb is fifth, 1m21s off the pace while Carlsson is sixth, but nearly three minutes down.

It marked the end of an action-packed day that started with a full-scale assault from double world champion Gronholm. The Finn looked unstoppable in the first three stages as he stretched his lead over team-mate Rovanpera and Solberg.

Championship challenger Markko Martin (Ford) was already out of the picture after he slid off course and down a bank. The Estonian will be able to re-join the rally on Saturday though under the new controversial SupeRally system, but he will be unable to score any points should he be in the top eight.

By SS4 Solberg went up a gear as he completed the stage 7.8s quicker than anyone else to take the overall lead from Gronholm by 8.3s. Citroen's Sebastien Loeb, who was the day's road-sweeper, put in a good stage to set the second quickest time, but he was still just fifth overall.

SS5 and SS6 were a disaster for Gronholm allowing Solberg to distance himself even further from the Finn following two spins and a stalled engine. It was the Peugeot of Rovanpera who was turning up the heat on Solberg just 1.3s shy of the Norwegian on the sixth stage leapfrogging him from fifth to third in the overall standings. Subaru team-mate Mikko Hirvonen was also impressive in the stage, just 1.7s down on Solberg.

It was a return to the 24.45km Pavliani test for SS7 and things didn't improve for Gronholm as Solberg took his fourth win in a row and extended his lead to 46.5s. It was Rovanpera again who continued to put the pressure on the Subaru driver finishing the stage just 3.6s slower and elevating himself to second overall ahead of team-mate Gronholm.

Just when you thought Solberg wouldn't be able to maintain his speed for a fifth consecutive stage win, he did just that beating Loeb by three seconds to increase his overall lead to 55s.

Duval may have won the final stage of the first leg, but the day definitely belonged to Solberg.