Loeb leads after day one in Germany

Although SS4 passed without incident, SS5 had to be abandoned while medical crews attended to Gigi Galli following a heavy accident for the Stobart Ford driver.

Initial reports suggested that both Galli and co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini had escaped serious injury, with Galli conscious and talking to the medics while still in the car. He was later airlifted to hospital for checks.

The following stage was also then halted after the first three cars passed through, as the rally organisers were concerned about the gap which had appeared between the first group of competitors who emerged from SS5 before Galli's accident and those held up behind the crash, especially as spectators had built up on the stage roads during the hiatus.

Only Loeb, Mikko Hirvonen and Chris Atkinson managed to complete all three stages at full speed, with SS6 reclassified as a road section shortly after Atkinson had completed it.

On paper, Loeb completed a clean sweep of fastest time by going quickest through the entire loop and is now 19.9 seconds ahead of Hirvonen, although it remains to be seen how many of Loeb's times will count when the officials decide how to classify the drivers following the cancelled stages.

"We've had a great pace all day and I'm pushing hard," said Loeb. "Mikko has been very fast this afternoon and it's been hard to stay in front, but we've been fastest all day so it's been going well."

Prior to the interruptions, Hirvonen had established himself in second place ahead of Citroen's Dani Sordo, while Jari-Matti Latvala had brought the second works Ford up to fifth behind Francois Duval (Stobart Ford) after overhauling the two Subarus.

"We made some changes in the set-up in the service and it suits my driving style, so I'm quite pleased with that," said Latvala.

Galli had been holding eighth prior to his accident, but his retirement has moved his Stobart Ford teammate Henning Solberg back into the points, ahead of Urmo Aava and Suzuki's Toni Gardemeister, subject to official confirmation of how SS5 and SS6 times will be allotted.

Leading positions after day one:

Pos  Driver        Car      Time
 1.  Loeb          Citroen  54:56.3
 2.  Hirvonen      Ford     +  18.8
 3.  Sordo         Citroen  +  24.5
 4.  Duval         Ford     +  37.6
 5.  Latvala       Ford     +  54.6
 6.  P Solberg     Subaru   +1:02.8
 7.  Atkinson      Subaru   +1:03.8
 8.  H Solberg     Ford     +1:35.1
 9.  Aava          Citroen  +1:38.3
10.  Gardemeister  Suzuki   +2:11.3