Update: Burns takes early lead

The Peugeot driver, who is widely reckoned to find success by stealth, looks set to go after this one on pure speed. But he isn't entirely happy with his own pace and has been making noises about too hard a tyre compound and a lack of grip.

Even so, Burns pipped Ford's Markko Martin to the stage win by just under a second, with Citroen's Colin McRae just another second slower. This sets up the prospect of a fascinating battle with at least three different makes already on the pace.

Peugeot, Ford and Citroen packed the top 10 on the stage. Citroen's Sebastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz were fourth and sixth, sandwiching Ford's Francois Duval. A gang of Peugeots took the next three places, with French youngster Cedric Robert ahead of his senior colleagues Gilles Panizzi and Marcus Gronholm. Norway's Petter Solberg was the only Subaru interloper, and he rounded out the top ten.

Skoda's predictions that this rally would be a public test session look about right - the two new Fabia WRCs completed the stage safely, but Didier Auriol and Toni Gardemeister were 17 and 21 seconds off the pace respectively. Bearing in mind that both Hyundais were slower, the new Fabia is looking promising.