Leg 1 am: Citroen takes fight to Peugeot

Loeb was an impressive 14 seconds quicker than the rest on the final stage of the morning, which gave him an 11-second lead over Richard Burns, who had set the pace on the opening stage. Marcus Gronholm's challenge suffered an early set back as the championship leader lost half a minute with a hydraulic problem on SS3 and dropped back to sixth.

Gronholm's title rival Colin McRae is just a few seconds ahead in fifth after the Focus driver struggled to match the pace of the leading cars. The Scot had been hoping for rain, but although conditions are cool and overcast it has thus far been dry and if anything, looks like brightening up.

Petter Solberg once again heads the Subaru charge and the Norwegian currently holds third position, although with the hard-charging Philippe Bugalski just a couple of seconds adrift the Impreza driver will have to be at his very best to stave of the Xsara's advances.

Local hero Armin Schwarz made a strong start to his home event and has been a regular feature of the top 10 in his Hyundai Accent. He lies ninth overall, one place behind the top privateer entry: the Peugeot 206 of Bruno Thiry. The Belgian tarmac specialist has been in top form, and with just over 10 seconds covering third to eighth, he's in contention for an unexpected podium finish.

It's been a trying first morning for Subaru despite Solberg's strong showing. Tommi Makinen had the handbrake of his Impreza come off in his hand on the second corner of the opening stage and with the vineyard stages of the opening day full of long straights followed by tight corners, the multiple world champion has been severely hampered and is way back in 16th.

The Finn is better off than new team-mate Achin Mortl, whose debut as a WRC works driver got off to an ignominious start when he tore the left rear wheel off his Impreza on SS1. He managed to limp to the end of the stage, but dropped almost two minutes.

There been only one major retirement thus far, as Jesus Puras' return to the WRC ended on SS3 when the electrics failed on his Xsara.

There has been little sign of any improvement in form for Mitsubishi, with both Francois Delecour and Alister McRae running near the foot of the top 20, behind the Skodas of Toni Gardemeister and Kenneth Eriksson.