Hirvonen leads Gronholm in Finland

The Finnish pair moved six seconds clear of Sebastien Loeb after the Frenchman lost time when he stalled at a hairpin in SS4.

Hirvonen admitted that the start of the rally had been relatively easy, but he is expecting conditions to be more difficult in the afternoon.

"It's quite easy at the moment, but this afternoon there will be less grip so it will be more difficult," said Hirvonen. "But so far so good."

The damp conditions in the morning have helped Gronholm, as it meant that there was less loose gravel on the road for the championship leader to clear as the first man on the road.

"There was quite a lot of grip," said Gronholm. "Maybe because it is early in the morning and damp, but it is still not good to be first on the road."

Loeb had kept the new 2007-spec Fords in touch during the first two stages of the morning, but he was angry to lose four seconds when he stalled at a hairpin.

"The rally is long, but I am pushing really hard so to lose four seconds with a stall is stupid," said the reigning world champion. "I had to wait a bit before I could push, which is not good."

Chris Atkinson is the only man who has been able to keep up with the top three during the early stages, but the Australian was angry after he stalled at a junction in SS4.

"We stalled at a junction and lost 10 seconds," said the Subaru driver, who is just 10 seconds down on Hirvonen in the overall standings.

"That would have been a great time, and we could have won that stage. My car is not perfect, but I guess my car is working better than Petter (Solberg's)."

Solberg was distraught after SS4, and the 2003 champion is already 16 seconds adrift of his teammate, while Dani Sordo splits the pair in fifth place.

"The car is driving like a two-wheel drive car," said Solberg. "Something is wrong, it's impossible. If people could watch the on board footage, they would understand."

Henning Solberg was happy to be in seventh as he has to settle into his Ford Focus for the first time in two months having not had any testing in the summer, while Urmo Aava completed the top eight.

Jari-Matti Latvala had been the early leader of the rally after he won the first stage of the morning, but the Finn lost two minutes with an off in SS3.

"The door seal came loose and fell into the cockpit," he said. "I lost my concentration, and I stalled in a junction, then at the next bend I went off and I got stuck in a ditch.

"Two minutes is not too far behind, we can still get a good result. But I made a mistake, and I shouldn't have done that."

Standings after SS4:

Pos  Driver      Car          Time
 1.  Hirvonen    Ford         23:19.9
 2.  Gronholm    Ford           +00.1
 3.  Loeb        Citroen        +06.6
 4.  Atkinson    Subaru         +10.4
 5.  Sordo       Citroen        +26.0
 6.  P Solberg   Subaru         +26.8
 7.  H Solberg   Ford           +29.6
 8.  Aava        Mitsubishi     +40.2
 9.  Stohl       Citroen        +41.6
10.  Wilks       Ford           +42.0