Leg 1 round-up: Citroen v Peugeot

Panizzi got off to a flying start to on the first special stage of the rally, but he was never able to stamp his authority around the Italian roads. The battle swung back and forth between the pair, with Puras snatching the lead on the penultimate stage. Going into the second day, just a second and a half separates the duelling Xsara and 206.

"The battle is what I expected," said leader Puras. "Gilles is strong, as is Philippe [Bulagaski in third place ] too. And we cannot forget Marcus [Gronholm in sixth] either. Tomorrow will be a good fight."

While the battle for Sanremo victory was unrelentless, the latest installation of the three-way fight for this year's world championship turned into something of a damp squib.

On the very first stage of the day, Richard Burns crashed out into retirement after sliding wide at a left-hander just 4km into the event. (For full story click here.)

But the Subaru star, who lies nine points behind joint championship leaders Colin McRae and Tommi Makinen, could get away without losing an inch of ground this weekend. That is because the Ford and Mitsubishi stars are stuggling out of the points, down in 13th and 14th places respectively.

McRae was hit by transmission problems throughout the day, along with a broken handbrake. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi's all-new Lancer Evo WRC was having a difficult baptism in the hands of Makinen. He too was suffering transmission dramas.

"It's not been a good day - we're not much better off than Richard at the moment," said McRae. "We could be really capitalising on Tommi's situation too, but we are not."

The first stage kicks off at 7am (BST) tomorrow morning (Saturday).

For full live timings table click here.