Gronholm out front in Wales

The Finn was preparing for a battle with his teammate Mikko Hirvonen, but the second Ford driver had to retire due to a damaged roll cage.

"My car is fine, but I have to watch out for others now," said Gronholm. "Petter is the one to watch, perhaps he will catch us."

Subaru's Petter Solberg ended the day in good spirits after a strong run through SS6, where he took eight seconds out of Gronholm.

"The afternoon was much better," said Solberg. "I'm going to do everything I can to push Marcus. Hopefully I can do this again tomorrow because it was really fun to drive."

Manfred Stohl lost touch with Solberg despite winning the first stage of the afternoon, but he is in a comfortable third place ahead of Jari Matti Latvala, who had had a spectacular first day in the 06 Ford Focus.

"I'm very surprised, I didn't expect this after the first day," said Latvala. "The car is so great to drive, I am really enjoying it, but there is a long way to go on the next two days."

Citroen teammates Dani Sordo and Xevi Pons are separated by less than a second after Pons made up more than 10 seconds on his fellow Spaniard through the final stage.

Chris Atkinson has dropped to seventh place, while Mark Higgins moved narrowly ahead of Francois Duval after the final stage of the day.

"It's nice to be fighting for points," said Higgins, "but we have to be slightly careful. We are a private team, so we can't afford to keep throwing bits at the car, we need to look after it."

Harri Rovanpera completes the top 10 at the end of day one, but the Finn is almost a minute behind Duval.

Pos   Driver    Make         Time
 1.  Gronholm   Ford    1h14:51.9
 2.  Solberg    Subaru   +   25.8
 3.  Stohl      Peugeot  +   48.1
 4.  Latvala    Ford     + 1:54.4
 5.  Sordo      Citroen  + 2:11.0
 6.  Pons       Citroen  + 2:11.9
 7.  Atkinson   Subaru   + 2:46.2
 8.  Higgins    Ford     + 2:52.7
 9.  Duval      Skoda    + 2:53.1
10.  Rovanpera  Skoda    + 3:40.2