Day 1am: Solberg dominates

The Norwegian put fears that he was going to be at a disadvantage running second on the sandy gravel roads firmly behind him as he bids to keep his championship hopes alive this weekend.

Solberg dominated the first stage of the day - the 28.69km Tantariles 1 - setting a time nearly 17 seconds quicker than his nearest challenger, Ford's Markko Martin. While Solberg was seemingly unhindered by the fresh roads, Loeb, as chief road sweeper, found it more difficult finishing the stage 32s off the Norwegian's pace.

Solberg continued his form on the second stage - the 27.45km Loelle 1 - but this time Peugeot's Gronholm kept the Norwegian honest just 0.7s off the pace. The Finn's quick run propelled him up to second spot overall while Martin dropped to fourth after losing nearly 12s to Solberg. Loeb set the third quickest stage time to leapfrog him up to seventh from ninth.

On stage three the Citroen ace mounted his fight-back setting the quickest time on the Tepilora 1. But Solberg was just 2.1s slower than the Frenchman and with Gronholm finishing the stage fifth over 9s off the pace the Norwegian extended his lead to 31.2s over the Finn.

"Not perfect, but not bad times," Solberg said. "I'm trying hard and can get into a good driving rhythm quite quickly. On the second and third stages, the engine was running very warm, so it dropped to three cylinders and cut off the anti-lag from time to time. The stages are quite rough in places, very difficult and technical."

Gronholm admits that he feels uncomfortable with his car and would be making changes to its set-up during the service break.

"I don't have a comfortable feeling with my car, but I'm not exactly sure why," he said. "I don't like these stages very much - they're extremely tight and narrow. The car feels like it's oversteering a bit in the slow corners, and this doesn't help my confidence. In service, I plan to make some changes to the differential settings that could hopefully solve the problem. I need to push hard to stay in touch with the leaders."

Ford's Markko Martin, who has admitted he's finding the tight and twisty roads a real challenge (Click HERE for separate story), moved up to third overall while Peugeot's Harri Rovanpera, who had occupied the slot, dropped to seventh overall now over 50s off Solberg's pace.

"The stages are technical and not so enjoyable to drive," Martin said during the service break. "The third stage was so twisty that it made the roads on Cyprus look like a motorway."

Loeb's stage win moves him up to fourth overall, but he will have his work cut out to slice into Solberg's 33.4s advantage on the remaining three stages of the day. Citroen's Carlos Sainz has moved up to fifth overall after setting the third quickest time on the final stage of the morning while Ford's second driver Francois Duval is sixth. Peugeot's Mikko Hirvonen rounds out the top eight, 53.8s of Solberg's pace.

The teams now head back into service at Olbia before tackling the same loop of stages as this morning later today.