Leg 1: Fog helps Gronholm

On the final stage the fog then lifted after the leaders had passed and so later runners gained time and passed the likes of Colin McRae, pushing the Scot to the foot of the top 10 and a long way from any championship points.

Some of the times initially appeared crazy with Freddy Loix going fastest for Hyundai, Toni Gardemeister and Gabriel Pozzo taking fourth and seventh respectively for Skoda and Toshi Arai's Subaru finishing eighth. However the times stuck and it became clear that the fog had lifted to make life easier for later runners.

While Gronholm looks set to extend his and Peugeot's championship lead it has been a day of frustration for his rivals. Colin McRae lost 40 seconds with a spin and Richard Burns was a victim of the patchy fog on the last two stages of the day.

Of the spin that probably cost McRae any chance of repeating his 2001 victory in Argentina, McRae said: "We spun in a fourth gear bend and finished with the nose of the car against a bank. It was a tight piece of road and we had to shuffle the car backwards and forwards before we could get going again."

The day saw retirement for Mitsubishi's Francois Delecour who rolled after landing on a rock and then had to pull off the road when the suspension collapsed later in the stage. Armin Schwarz lost oil pressure from his Hyundai on the final stage and joined the retirements list, while Gilles Panizzi is expected to collect 1m20s of road penalties this evening after stopping on the final road section when his engine died for a frustrating eight minutes. As some observers noted, it couldn't happen to Gronholm...

Tomorrow's stages are repeats of today's and so the roads will be cut up. With the top 15 cars starting the day in reverse order then Gronholm will get the worst of any damaged roads but on his current form that will be only a minor irritation rather than a cause for concern...

For full times from SS9, click here.

For full rally live timings, click here.

For rally itinerary, click here.

For full entry list, click here.