Leg 1: Round up and quotes

Peugeots filled places two and three, with Marcus Gronholm winning the Blenheim stage on his way to third place overnight one second behind team mate Francois Delecour. 'We've had a good day, but really it's very easy to be here at the end of the first day,' said Gronholm. 'We will go for it tomorrow, but the stages may not suit us as well.'

Richard Burns lies fourth having lost time early on with a spin at Cornbury. This cost him 10 seconds, but otherwise the Subaru driver had a quick and consistent run, the highlight being his win on Stage 6, the Silverstone Superspecial. There he was paired with Colin McRae, giving a chance for them both to 'let the driving do the talking' after all the pre-event hype. Not only did Burns beat his rival, but he set the fastest time of the stage, and at the allowed himself more than a little smile. 'I've been going for it all day, but mistakes early on cost us time. The Pirellis are working very well, as you can see with Juha, and without that spin we'd have been right there, so I'm happy. The crowd at Silverstone was great. It was nice to beat Colin there, but the forests of Wales are different, and that's where it counts. But I don't have any worries or concerns. I'm surrounded by good people, so I'm confident.'

McRae had a niggly day, finishing up 23.9 seconds behind the leader in seventh position. A mistake from the Scot on the opening stage of the rally saw him damage the driver's door and smash the window against a hay bale. This was replaced at Silverstone (with a door taken from a show car!), where he also experienced gear selection problems with his Ford Focus. The crew changed the gearbox as a precaution. 'We are disappointed to have lost a few seconds, it's not been as good as we wanted, But today is the kind of day where you can lose so much more if you try too hard. The stages have been very slippery, very difficult, I've been careful -- maybe everyone else has been pushing harder. We'll see what happens, tomorrow is totally different. The first stage is fast and difficult, and will be a better indication of how the rally will go.''

The two British drivers sandwiched the Toyota pair of Carlos Sainz and Didier Auriol in fifth and sixth places. Neither driver had much to report at the end of the first day, perhaps suggesting that their attack will start in the Welsh forests on Monday morning. Sainz said: 'It's been very difficult, very slippery, but otherwise everything OK. Maybe we had the wrong tyres on the first stages, but really that was the only problem.' Auriol added: 'I tried to drive fast and safe, it's important to finish this day. I had some understeer, but we should have that fixed for tomorrow.'

Lying seventh overnight is new World Champion Tommi Makinen, after a frustrating day in his Mitsubishi. 'I'm not very happy. We made some stupid mistakes with the set up which we fixed at the first service, and the car was OK after that. Then we made some tyre mistakes. I didn't realise that we would be re-seeded for Blenheim in reverse, and we had tarmac tyres. But everyone in front of us cut the corners so much bringing mud onto the road. By the time we went through we could hardly find any tarmac! But the car is in good shape for tomorrow. The plan is to go as fast as we can. I think it's important to keep flat out, and not braking too much...'

Monday's eight challenging forest stages total 97.38 miles, with the first -- the demanding Radnor -- starting at 0742, having left Cheltenham parc ferme at 0515.