Hirvonen steps up to plate

The Finn blasted around the Superspecial track, constructed in the stadium of football club River Plate, in 2:08.3, with his Ford team-mate Marcus Gronholm just 0.6 seconds behind him in second place.

The Citroen duo of Dani Sordo and three-time world champion Sebastian Loeb finished third and fourth respectively, with Petter Solberg setting an equal time to Loeb's in his Subaru.

Chris Atkinson's Subaru and the Stobart Ford duo of Henning Solberg and Britain's Matthew Wilson were next up, with the Kronos Citroen of Manfred Stohl and the Munchi's Ford of local boy Luis Perez Companc completing the top ten.

Former production World Rally champion Niall McShea. of Britain, completing in 19th position - third in Group N - in his first outing since his hiatus from the sport.

The drivers, crews and cars must now make their way 700 kilometres overnight to the region of Cordoba for the start of Friday's stage.