Solberg dominates opening stages

The Subaru team have struggled so far in 2006, with Solberg yet to score a single point. But his lowly championship position has worked to the Norweigan's advantage in Mexico. With the cars running in championship order, series leader Marcus Gronholm has been left to perform road sweeping duties for those following him through the stage, while Solberg has enjoyed a much cleaner passage.

Solberg put his resurgence down to a trouble free morning and the favourable conditions.

"The car is working, no major problems, and I have a good starting position," he said. "That's how it is."

Ford number two Mikko Hirvonen was the only driver to get close to Solberg's pace this morning. Although 10 seconds behind Solberg, he already holds a 19 second advantage over his team leader Gronholm. But the championship leader was not too downcast.

"First on the road, I'm sliding everywhere, but that's normal," said Gronholm. "I hope the gap is not too big."

Sebastien Loeb suffered from similar problems with the dusty stages, but was concerned not to be at least matching Gronholm's pace. He finished SS3 in fourth place, comfortably clear of Chris Atkinson and the gripless Manfred Stohl.

Matthew Wilson is on course for his best WRC result yet, running seventh after SS3. His cause was aided by Henning Solberg's brake problems, some gearbox issues for Dani Sordo, and an engine malfunction that stranded Xavier Pons on SS2, but Wilson's pace has nevertheless been impressive given his inexperience.

"It seems to be going okay, so no complaints," he said.

Top 20 after SS3 

Pos  Driver         Make        Time
 1.  P Solberg      Subaru      42:20.5
 2.  Hirvonen       Ford        + 10.4
 3.  Gronholm       Ford        + 29.4
 4.  Loeb           Citroen     + 33.1
 5.  Atkinson       Subaru      + 47.1
 6.  Stohl          Peugeot     + 1:05.5
 7.  Wilson         Ford        + 1:28.4
 8.  Sordo          Citroen     + 1:33.0
 9.  H Solberg      Peugeot     + 1:56.6
10.  MacHale        Ford        + 2:47.8
11.  Latvala        Subaru      + 3:31.8
12.  Arai           Subaru      + 3:32.4
13.  Perez Companc  Ford        + 3:43.6
14.  Trivino        Peugeot     + 3:52.0
15.  Ligato         Mitsubishi  + 4:19.1
16.  Baldacci       Mitsubishi  + 4:25.7
17.  Al-Attiyah     Subaru      + 4:52.4
18.  Kuzaj          Subaru      + 4:55.6
19.  Vojtech        Mitsubishi  + 5:40.9
20.  Uspenskiy      Subaru      + 6:16.4