Hirvonen leads from Gronholm, Loeb

Hirvonen won all three stages in tricky conditions, as several drivers decided to take it easy through the morning.

The Ford driver is already 21 seconds ahead of Gronholm, who moved narrowly ahead of his title rival Loeb after SS3.

Loeb and Gronholm both admitted that they were not pushing, although for different reasons.

"I don't need to push to the maximum," said Gronholm. "We just need to wait and see what happens to Sebastien."

Loeb decided to take things easy as he was first on the road through the muddy stages, but the French driver is only one second behind Gronholm.

"It's not possible to fight in these conditions," said Loeb. "Its too tricky with the mud. In my situation it's very difficult when it's so slippery."

Jari-Matti Latvala is close behind Loeb in fourth, and the Finnish driver said that he was feeling more confident with the car as the morning progressed.

Petter Solberg ended the morning in fifth place after his rally started with a spin in SS1, while Dani Sordo is already one minute adrift of the lead in sixth.

Chris Atkinson was disappointed with his performance in seventh place, and the Australian was concerned because he was not sure why his car was so slow.

Matt Wilson moved into the points at the end of SS3 on his home event, as he went through SS3 10 seconds faster than Manfred Stohl, pushing the Austrian driver down to ninth.

Suzuki's gravel debut with the new SX4 started badly, as Sebastian Lindholm lost more than three minutes in just the first two stages with several problems.

Pos  Driver        Car          Time 
 1.  Hirvonen      Ford         38:01.5
 2.  Gronholm      Ford         + 21.4
 3.  Loeb          Citroen      + 22.4
 4.  Latvala       Ford         + 29.4
 5.  Solberg       Subaru       + 54.4
 6.  Sordo         Citroen      + 59.9
 7.  Atkinson      Subaru       + 1:17.2
 8.  Wilson        Ford         + 1:37.3
 9.  Stohl         Citroen      + 1:43.3
10.  Pons          Subaru       + 1:55.2