Gronholm rolls, Solberg leads

The Finn was one of several drivers to have problems, hitting a rock just five kilometres into the first stage of the day. The subsequent roll damaged his steering and caused gear selection problems.

Gronholm is still running, but he is down in 31st overall, complaining of dust in the car due to broken windows.

"We cannot see anything or even breathe," he said. "It's very bad, this is going to be very difficult now."

The Finn must finish at least third to keep the drivers championship battle alive in Sebastien Loeb's absence.

Chris Atkinson led his home event after the first three stages of the day, but then ran off the road himself during SS6, where his car became beached.

The hot exhaust then caused a bush fire, and the stage was stopped to allow other crews to help put out the flames.

Solberg took the lead from Mikko Hirvonen after SS7, but the Norwegian said that he was hoping to get more traction from the Subaru.

"I'm not happy with the car yet, but I know what I have to do," he said. "I have a plan now."

Hirvonen has had to be the first car on the road after Gronholm's roll, cleaning the stages for those behind.

"I didn't expect a mistake like that from Marcus," he said. "Being first on the road is terrible, I'm not going to enjoy it."

Xevi Pons has put in a solid performance on his return to a prominent role with the Kronos Citroen team, and has stayed out of trouble to hold third position.

Manfred Stohl is the only other driver of a WRC car to not have any major dramas, although he said he was disappointed with his performance so far and was struggling for confidence.

Henning Solberg was another to crash out on the first day of proper stages, along with Luis Perez Companc, while Matt Wilson hit a rock and his car was too badly damaged to continue. Dani Sordo retired on the opening stage with a gearbox problem.

Standings after SS7:

Pos  Driver     Make        Time
 1.  Solberg    Subaru      45:46.3
 2.  Hirvonen   Ford        45:49.0 +    2.7
 3.  Pons       Citroen     46:22.5 +   36.2
 4.  Stohl      Peugeot     46:39.5 +   53.2
 5.  Herridge   Subaru      48:54.6 + 3:08.3
 5.  Baldacci   Mitsubishi  49:03.4 + 3:17.1
 6.  Arai       Subaru      49:12.8 + 3:26.5
 7.  Teiskonen  Subaru      49:30.1 + 3:43.8
 8.  Nutahara   Mitsubishi  50:08.9 + 4:22.6
 9.  Beltran    Mitsubishi  50:38.7 + 4:52.4
10.  Windus     Subaru      51:26.2 + 5:39.9