Ford pair dominate early stages

The team only need to score three more points than Kronos Citroen on this rally to claim the manufacturers' title, and with the leading non-Ford already 30.9 seconds behind after SS2, Ford's target looks extremely achievable.

Although the opening loop comprised only two special stages, it was a far from gentle start. SS2 was the 43km Te Koraha stage, being used for the first time in eight years, and made slightly more tricky by drizzle and damp patches left from overnight rain.

Gronholm won both of this morning's stages, despite a slight scare in Pirongia West 1.

"On the first stage I hit a pole or something and my steering is a little bit bent to the left, but it's not a big problem," he said.

Rally Australia winner Hirvonen is 17.7 seconds behind his team leader at present.

"The car is not perfect, it's quite difficult to drive," said Hirvonen. "We'll see, but at the moment it's going well."

OMV Peugeot's Manfred Stohl is currently Ford's nearest challenger, ahead of Dani Sordo in the leading Citroen.

"Everything is okay but it's still very slippery," said Stohl. "I didn't expect it to be so slippery. But the feeling is okay and the car is okay."

Not for the first time in 2006, Petter Solberg was already downcast by the time he completed the opening loop. The Subaru driver complained of a total lack of grip and ended SS2 with a small fire on the Impreza's right rear corner. He is 1:19.9 adrift of Gronholm in fifth.

All 11 WRC cars in the event made it through the first two stages, but several encountered minor problems.

Xavier Pons had to nurse his overheating Citroen through SS2, and a water leak inside the second OMV Peugeot meant that Henning Solberg was being sprayed with fluid - just as he had been when the same problem occurred in Cyprus.

Chris Atkinson spun his Subaru early in SS1, but was more concerned by the car's lack of outright performance.

"We're just looking for a little bit of grip," he said. "We'll see what we can do in service and move on from there, but we're miles away from the pace at the moment."

MotoGP superstar Valentino Rossi has made an understandably cautious start to his second ever WRC event, setting stage times several minutes off the pace. He is now seven minutes behind the leaders and trailing the Production cars, but is enjoying the experience nevertheless.

Leading times after SS2:

Pos  Driver         Make         Time
 1.  Gronholm       Ford      44:54.4
 2.  Hirvonen       Ford       + 17.7
 3.  Stohl          Peugeot    + 30.9
 4.  Sordo          Citroen    + 48.9
 5.  P Solberg      Subaru   + 1:19.9
 6.  Pons           Citroen  + 1:25.5
 7.  H Solberg      Peugeot  + 1:51.8
 8.  Perez Companc  Ford     + 2:01.2
 9.  Wilson         Ford     + 2:05.7
10.  Atkinson       Subaru   + 2:41.2