SSS 9 Killeri 1: Another close one...

Carlos Sainz and Petter Solberg were the stars of the Super Special, setting identical times in equal first place. However, despite his fastest stage time, Solberg is not 100 percent happy with his progress on day one.

"It's been an average day for me," said the Norwegian. "There's been lots of goods stuff, but I haven't really had proper confidence in the car. I think I'm lucky to still be in the rally because we had an oil leak after service, and were lucky to spot it and fix it before the stage.

"Tomorrow I'm just going to drive in the same way and hope for a clearer run."

Sainz's team mate Colin McRae finished just behind the leading pair, less than half a second off the pace.

While the fans were treated to a spectacular end to the leg, it was expected that there would be no significant changes on the leaderboard on such a short stage. And the top seven drivers were separated by less then a second on Killeri, however the big loser was Harri Rovanpera - his Peugeot had lost all the oil in its shock absorbers and finished 10 seconds off the pacesetters' time.

His misfortune meant that team mate Didier Auriol leapfrogged Rovanpera in the overall standings to fourth place after the Frenchman set the fourth fastest time on the Super Special. He shared that slot with Markko Martin's Subaru and the Estonian has a 10-second advantage over Auriol in the standings, securing third place overall at the end of Leg 1.

Behind Burns in seventh was Gronholm's Peugeot. But despite suffering his lowest finish of the day, the reigning world champion was only one tenth of a second behind his Subaru rival and will start Leg 2 second on the road, behind Burns.

For SSS9, Killeri 1, results and overnight standings, click here.

For full live timings table click here.

For full entry list click here.

For the itinerary click here.