Loeb fastest on opening superspecial

The world champion - who is chasing a fifth consecutive Argentina victory this weekend - beat his title rival Mikko Hirvonen by a second on the short stage.

"It was okay, very slippery, very difficult and very easy to make a mistake on this stage," said Loeb. "I'm happy - no problems, we've got the best time and it's perfect."

Loeb's Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo completed the top three, just a tenth of a second down on Hirvonen's Ford.

Petter Solberg (Solberg Citroen) was delighted to beat his brother Henning (Stobart Ford) by 0.6 seconds on their side-by-side run. The Norwegian siblings took fourth and fifth, ahead of Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala, who is driving cautiously following his terrifying accident in Portugal.

"It might take me some time to get back in the right rhythm, but that's why we're here - to get it back," said Latvala.

Leading positions after SS1:

Pos  Driver              Team     Time
 1.  Sebastien Loeb      Citroen  2m23.6s
 2.  Mikko Hirvonen      Ford      + 1.0s
 3.  Dani Sordo          Citroen   + 1.1s
 4.  Petter Solberg      Citroen   + 1.9s
 5.  Henning Solberg     Citroen   + 2.5s
 6.  Jari-Matti Latvala  Ford      + 2.7s
 7.  Sebastien Ogier     Citroen   + 4.0s
 8.  Nasser Al-Attiyah   Subaru    + 4.2s
 9.  Matthew Wilson      Ford      + 5.0s
10.  Raul Martinez       Subaru    + 6.3s