Leg 1 am: Martin takes early lead

Estonian Martin was told by his team to go out and make his mark on the event and that's exactly what he did. He was quickest by more than 10 seconds through the first stage, and increased his advantage as the day went on.

All the drivers agreed that this year's event was much smoother than usual, although it is expected that some of tomorrow's stages may start to cut up as they are used twice. However, the stages are still quite dirty and this has contributed to the failure of the Peugeots to make their usual impact at the head of the field.

The top 206 is championship leader Marcus Gronholm in third, while Richard Burns is fifth, just over five seconds behind his team-mate

The form of the Hyundais was the morning's main surprise. Like Martin, Freddy Loix and team-mate Armin Schwarz benefited from a good starting slot and they have been on the pace all day. Loix was quickest through SS3 to maintain an advantage over Gronholm in second, while Schwarz is fourth

Citroen's Thomas Radstrom was quickest on SS2, but lies eighth overall. Colin McRae is sixth, just over a second behind Burns. Carlos Sainz is ninth, Tommi Makinen 10th, but team-mate Petter Solberg had a spin which dropped him back to 23rd, over two minutes behind Martin