Gronholm dominates early stages

His performances through the stages at Terranova, Onani and Siniscola helped him build up a comfortable 40.1 seconds lead over his nearest challenger, Ford teammate Mikko Hirvonen. The only blot on his copybook was a slight bit of paint damage when he swiped a gate on the third stage.

Gronholm's charge was definitely helped by world championship leader Sebastien Loeb being the first man on the road and performing road sweeping duties for the cars behind him - but it could not explain all of the difference between the pace of the Ford and the Citroen cars.

Loeb was fifth quickest on the first stage, fourth quickest on the second and third on the third to leave himself 40.4 seconds adrift of the lead - but clearly facing more struggles this afternoon on a day when teams are complaining of very slippery conditions.

Petter Solberg ended the first morning fourth overall, having recovered from a spin in the first stage of the day, which had left him stationary in the road for what he felt was 'quite some time'. It also resulted in some minor damage to the front right hand side of his Subaru Impreza WRC2006.

The former world champion also hit a rock on the third stage, causing damage to the rear of his car. "It is not really happening for me this morning," he said. "I'm also struggling a bit for traction."

Fifth overall in the standings was Henning Solberg, who had also had a pretty wild time through the first stage. "It was a bad stage," said the Norwegian.

Just behind the two Solbergs was Subaru's Chris Atkinson, who had been second overall in the first stage of the day despite complaining of minor differential and throttle problems.

Perhaps the most disappointed man was Peugeot's Gigi Galli, who had gone into the event hoping to be challenging for a podium finish. He spun just five corners into the first stage of the day and after needing to reverse he lost around 40 seconds. He is seventh overall after the first three stages, one minute and 17 seconds adrift of Gronholm.

Leading times after SS3:

Pos  Driver         Make             Time
 1.  Gronholm       Ford          47:22.2
 2.  Hirvonen       Ford        +    40.1
 3.  Loeb           Citroen     +    40.4
 4.  P. Solberg     Subaru      +    48.9
 5.  H. Solberg     Peugeot     +    53.9
 6.  Atkinson       Subaru      +    54.6
 7.  Valimaki       Mitsubishi  +  1:16.6
 8.  Galli          Peugeot     +  1:17.6
 9.  Sordo          Citroen     +  1:19.2
10.  Pons           Citroen     +  1:24.4
11.  Stohl          Peugeot     +  1:38.6
12.  Duval          Skoda       +  2:09.9
13.  Katajamaki     Ford        +  2:34.1
14.  Machale        Ford        +  3:31.7
15.  Rovanpera      Skoda       +  3:32.7
16.  Aigner         Skoda       +  3:35.5
17.  Perez Companc  Ford        +  4:29.8
18.  Wilson         Ford        + 26:35.9