Hirvonen crashes, Loeb leads

The Ford driver began the day in second place, just 4.5 seconds behind leader Petter Solberg, but went off the road early in the El Zauco 1 stage. His Focus rolled into a ditch, and although the damage was relatively slight, it was impossible to extricate the car. Both Hirvonen and his co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen are reported to be unhurt.

The stage also saw a change of lead, as Sebastien Loeb set the fastest time and converted his nine second deficit to Solberg into a 0.7 second advantage. Solberg blamed a poor tyre choice for his comparatively poor performance and reckons it could now be difficult to recover the lost ground, especially as he must complete the remainder of this morning's loop on the same tyres.

Matthew Wilson is also understood to have crashed on SS8. The young British driver had been running a superb sixth at the end of leg one but is now out of the leg.