Hirvonen leads from flying Latvala

But both would be running behind Stobart Ford driver Gigi Galli had the Italian not picked up a 10 second penalty.

Hirvonen hit the front in SS2 and remained ahead for the rest of the loop despite struggling with the amount of dust inside his Ford Focus.

"That did slow us down a bit, it was really difficult to breathe," he said. "I think a stone or something hit a hole in the car, because the window is okay."

His teammate Latvala tumbled down the order when he punctured a tyre in SS2, but with the tyre replaced, he then set a staggering time in the next stage - beating the rest of the field by 15 seconds and vaulting from 14th to third, before taking second, just 6.9 seconds behind Hirvonen, by the end of SS4.

"There was a crest on a flat right corner, I just went in fast and there was a huge rock, and basically the tyre immediately punctured," Latvala explained. "We carried on for 12 kilometres with the right-front puncture, so I was actually very happy that I didn't lose more time.

"I'm really surprised the times were that good. I think we're in the battle again. I'm not absolutely at the maximum, but for sure I'm going fast."

Galli was the only man quicker than Latvala in SS4, as he mounted his own recovery charge after a small fire caused him to check in late at time control three and incur a 10 second penalty. Given that he finished the morning just 8.1 seconds behind Hirvonen, the Stobart driver would have led the rally but for the penalty.

"The rear bumper started to touch the exhaust and catch fire, so we just a lot of time and we were late," he explained.

Stobart Ford have two cars in the top four at present, with Henning Solberg only 0.3 seconds behind teammate Galli after a very strong start to his rally.

Championship leader Sebastien Loeb always expected to lose time when running first on the dusty roads this morning, but was relieved to be only 10 seconds off the lead after SS4, albeit down in fifth place in the very close standings.

"I'm not that far behind at the moment, but there were times when it felt like we were completely stopped in the stage because we had to go very slow and had no grip," Loeb said. "I've done good stages with no mistakes this morning and the feeling with the car was okay, so we couldn't have done better."

His Citroen teammate Dani Sordo fell from second to sixth in SS4 after stalling near the end of the stage, costing him 12 seconds.

The Subarus have made a quiet start to the rally, with Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson only seventh and 10th at present, sandwiching Stobart's Matthew Wilson, who has set promising times this morning despite struggling with illness, and Suzuki's Per-Gunnar Andersson.

As those early in the running order struggled, two young drivers in independent cars had a brief chance to shine this morning.

Urmo Aava's Team Estonia Citroen was fastest of all in SS2 only to stop with broken suspension in the next stage, while Andreas Mikkelsen (Ramsport Ford) held second overall behind Hirvonen after SS2 before falling back to 11th in subsequent stages after damper problems developed.

Leading positions after SS4:

Pos  Driver     Car      Time
 1.  Hirvonen   Ford     47:29.6
 2.  Latvala    Ford      +  6.9
 3.  Galli      Ford      +  8.1
 4.  H Solberg  Ford      +  8.4
 5.  Loeb       Citroen   + 10.2
 6.  Sordo      Citroen   + 11.2
 7.  P Solberg  Subaru    + 24.4
 8.  Wilson     Ford      + 27.7
 9.  Andersson  Suzuki    + 35.9
10.  Atkinson   Subaru    + 36.1