Sordo takes early lead in Jordan

Sordo and Subaru's Petter Solberg - the only drivers to attend the recce for last year's candidate event in Jordan - set identical times through SS1 to share the initial lead.

But Sordo then pulled away in the next two stages, and despite an error and some dissatisfaction with his pace notes in SS4, he ended the morning 13 seconds in front.

"It's been a super morning, although that was a big mistake (in SS4)," said Sordo.

The battle behind Sordo is incredibly close, with 2.9 seconds covering Latvala, Sebastien Loeb (Citroen), Solberg and Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) in second to fifth positions.

Loeb has been unhappy with his Citroen's handling this morning and ran fifth at first, but a fastest time in Mal'n 1 moved him up to third.

Solberg had held second initially, before a slightly slower run through Mal'n dropped him to fourth.

"It's so difficult, we lost quite a lot of traction in the second stage, just losing the grip," said Solberg. "We did some things after the stage, and it was better, but it's too unpredictable."

Hirvonen admitted he was lucky to get to the end of the loop. The Ford driver went off the road in SS2 and hit several large rocks while trying to rejoin, but escaped with only minor damage.

"It's okay, I just took it a bit more steady, I don't want to make any more mistakes," Hirvonen said after SS4. "There was a little bit of damage to the rear suspension, but the car was okay to drive. I was really lucky. We're still here and there's a long way to go."

Chris Atkinson is currently sixth in the second Subaru and is also uncomfortable with his set-up, dropping 50 seconds to the leaders so far.

Both Suzukis have already hit trouble. PG Andersson hit a rock, then went off in the first stage and lost 24 minutes by the time he managed to rejoin. He decided to return to the service area rather than attempting to continue to SS2.

His teammate Toni Gardemeister ran 10th early on, but stopped in the third stage.

Stobart Ford's Gigi Galli currently holds seventh, just 0.9 seconds ahead of Junior series graduate Urmo Aava in the World Rally Team Estonia Citroen. Aava ran sixth at first, then lost a little ground with some errors in SS3 and handling problems in the slower corners.

Matthew Wilson (Stobart Ford) and Conrad Rautenbach (Citroen) complete the top ten, with Stobart's Henning Solberg back in 13th after early brake problems.

After his short notice call-up to the second Munchi's Ford drive, Barry Clark has completed the first four stages five minutes off the pace and just outside the overall top 20.

Leading positions after SS4:

Pos  Driver      Car      Time
 1.  Sordo       Citroen  38:40.7
 2.  Latvala     Ford     +  13.8
 3.  Loeb        Citroen  +  14.5
 4.  P Solberg   Subaru   +  15.1
 5.  Hirvonen    Ford     +  16.7
 6.  Atkinson    Subaru   +  51.5
 7.  Galli       Ford     +1:09.4
 8.  Aava        Citroen  +1:10.3
 9.  Wilson      Ford     +1:25.7
10.  Rautenbach  Citroen  +1:48.0