Latvala takes early lead in Japan

Gronholm had won SS2 and then edged ahead of Latvala - who had led from the opening stage - in SS3 Kimun Kamuy, only to go off in the following Rikubetsu stage.

The Finn's Ford Focus sustained severe damage to its driver's side, and although Gronholm managed to resume and reach the end of the stage, he dropped a minute to the leaders and fell to eighth place.

His incident moved Stobart Ford driver Latvala back into the lead in the foggy and slippery conditions. The young Finn thought he had let the competition close on him in Rikubetsu, but ended up just 0.8 seconds off the pace in the stage and maintained a five-second lead.

"It was a good morning," Latvala said. "Unfortunately I just screwed up a little in the short stage, pushing a bit too hard in the start and I went wide on a couple of occasions, but otherwise it was okay.

"We have had a good feeling - let's hope we can keep it."

Mikko Hirvonen moved up to second after his teammate Gronhom's crash, and is currently five seconds behind Latvala and 1.1 seconds ahead of Gronholm's title rival Sebastien Loeb. The Citroen driver was second fastest in the opening stage then fell to fourth in Cup Kamuy. He recovered ground by winning SS3.

"We have to concentrate, it's a really tricky rally so we'll try to do our best," said Loeb.

Latvala's teammate Henning Solberg has been back on the pace this morning after muted performances on the asphalt rallies. The Norweigan is in fourth place, 22 seconds off the lead and four seconds ahead of Citroen's Dani Sordo, who recovered from an earlier spin to win in Rikubetsu and stay half a second in front of sixth-placed Petter Solberg (Subaru).

Solberg's teammates had difficult mornings, with Chris Atkinson losing a lot of time with a spin in SS2 and ending the loop in ninth, behind OMV Kronos Citroen driver Manfred Stohl and the delayed Gronholm. Xevi Pons has struggled for speed in the third Subaru and is a distant 10th.

Pos  Driver     Car      Time
 1.  Latvala    Ford     29:28.1
 2.  Hirvonen   Ford     +   5.0
 3.  Loeb       Citroen  +   6.1
 4.  H Solberg  Ford     +  22.0
 5.  Sordo      Citroen  +  26.7
 6.  P Solberg  Subaru   +  27.2
 7.  Stohl      Citroen  +  44.3
 8.  Gronholm   Ford     +  58.3
 9.  Atkinson   Subaru   +1:01.0
10.  Pons       Subaru   +1:11.0