Day 1am: Solberg leads

Peugeot's double world champion is stalking the Subaru driver closely, just as he did in New Zealand, and the two are gradually moving away from the rest of the pack.

"It's very rough and the conditions are quite difficult," said Solberg.
"I tried to be careful, but there were lots of rocks around. I think that maybe my driving was too aggressive on the first stage and I got three punctures, but generally things are going very well.

"With three punctures, I couldn't move the tyres around as I would have liked and so one of the front tyres was completely worn when we got back to service.

"I had a small mistake on the tarmac section in SS1 where it was very slippery. You have to keep focused here - one rock can catch you out. I'm going to try to keep a good pace, but you don't have to lead this rally at the end of the first day, you just have to still be in it."

Gronholm's team-mate Harri Rovanpera is third overall, a full 10s behind the leaders but ahead of Citroen's Carlos Sainz. Markko Martin, now the only Ford Focus driver left in the event after team-mate Francois Duval hit a rock on the first stage and destroyed his front suspension, is fifth.

Martin is complaining that being first on the road is making it difficult to stay with the pace. But Sebastien Loeb, running second on the road and currently lying sixth overall, didn't seem to have too much trouble setting the fastest time on stage three to move within a second of the Estonian.