Gronholm pulls away in Greece

The Ford driver had been second to Sebastien Loeb on the opening superspecial on Thursday evening, but when the fully fledged stages began Gronholm proved dominant, moving straight into the rally lead.

His advantage after SS4 stands at 13.9 seconds over Petter Solberg, who has kept Gronholm within sight despite suffering three rear punctures during the morning.

But having dominated several Fridays this season only to hit trouble later in the rally, Gronholm is not taking anything for granted yet.

"I was leading by 40 seconds in Sardinia and on the Saturday night I was at home watching Eurovision..." he said.

Loeb is 21.8 seconds adrift in third. Running first on the dusty roads has hampered the champion, but he admitted that Gronholm's pure speed is just as much of a problem as the loose surface.

"I pushed really, really hard and made no mistakes," said Loeb. "Marcus is faster. I try not to lose too much time."

The top three have already moved comfortably clear of the remainder of the field, which boasts a healthy complement of competitive WRC cars this weekend.

Mikko Hirvonen holds fourth after an over-cautious start to the day. He is only 1.8 seconds ahead of the very impressive Francois Duval in his First Motorsport Skoda.

Returnee Toni Gardemeister is another privateer in good shape, running sixth in his Citroen, despite being unhappy with the unfamiliar car's handling.

Unsurprisingly the rocky Greek stages have already caused problems for several drivers. Chris Atkinson was disconsolate after a front differential problem struck in SS3, forcing him to complete the remainder of the stage and all of SS4 at a very reduced pace.

OMV Peugeot driver Henning Solberg was also in trouble, suffering an unnerving high speed tyre blow-out in SS2.

"It just blew up on the long, long straight," said Solberg. "I have not hit anything."

Solberg switched to a more cautious pace after the incident, but prior to the puncture his split times had suggested that he might challenge his younger brother and Loeb. He pushed harder as his confidence returned later in the morning, and has already moved up from 13th to ninth.

Leaderboard after SS4:

Pos  Driver        Make            Time
 1.  Gronholm      Ford         41:23.7
 2.  P Solberg     Subaru        + 13.9
 3.  Loeb          Citroen       + 21.8
 4.  Hirvonen      Ford          + 40.4
 5.  Duval         Skoda         + 42.2
 6.  Gardemeister  Citroen       + 53.8
 7.  Valimaki      Mitsubishi  + 1:00.9
 8.  Pons          Citroen     + 1:01.0
 9.  H Solberg     Peugeot     + 1:02.1
10.  Stohl         Peugeot     + 1:05.5
11.  Sordo         Citroen     + 1:06.9
12.  Katajamaki    Ford        + 1:20.7
13.  Vovos         Subaru      + 1:24.8
14.  Aigner        Skoda       + 1:38.3
15.  Kopecky       Skoda       + 1:40.5
16.  Rovanpera     Skoda       + 1:53.6
17.  Wilson        Ford        + 1:54.2
18.  Atkinson      Subaru      + 4:12.5
19.  Teiskonen     Subaru      + 4:26.6
20.  Al-Attiyah    Subaru      + 4:30.0