Solberg ends on a high

Petter Solberg picked up where he left off in Wales by charging through the opening three stages of the Sardinia Rally, winning two and finishing second in the third to pull out an almost an instant 32-second lead going into first service.

The stages were indeed in a worse condition, resulting in the event leader reducing his speed accordingly, but in doing so, Marcus Gronholm took advantage of a better handling 307 WRC to close to within 23 seconds of the Norwegian despite complaining about the difficulty of the stages.

Championship leader Sebastien Loeb fought back from a disastrous opening stage, where he lost 32 seconds to Solberg, to end the day just 34.8 seconds despite swpeeing the roads clean for the following drivers. The Frenchman will enjoy more favourable conditions tomorrow and will certainly be looking to close the deficit to his Rally GB nemesis.

Carlos Sainz was a minute adrift in fourth after a typically consistent run through the stages, while Ford's Makko Martin could do no better than fifth after a trying opening day. "The stages are technical and not so enjoyable to drive," he said. "The third stage was so twisty that it made the roads in Cyprus look like a motorway."

Peugeot's Harri Rovanpera had made a strong start to the event, running as high as second early on before an off-road excursion dropped him down the field. "It's not been a bad start to the rally but unfortunately I went off the road on the third stage, and lost about 10 or 15 seconds when the engine stalled," he explained.

Belgian Francois Duval is 1min 33.2secs off the pace in seventh, while Skoda's celebrations have been mooted by the first stage retirement of Toni Gardemeister (Suspension) and a less than impressive performance by Armin Schwarz, currently 5 minutes off the pace in 11th.