Zoom Marcus had the elements on his side

The expected duel between Marcus Grönholm and Sébastien Loeb has officially been engaged on the roads of New Zealand. With the exception of the super special stage taken by Chris Atkinson, the title contenders each won the same number of stages over the first leg.

If Grönholm presently holds the lead, he knows that Loeb will be fighting to take control of the race after it became apparent that his championship rival was the only one able to maintain the same pace. Mikko Hirvonen sits in third overall place, but with a delay of 49.2 seconds over his leader team mate.

The skies were with Grönholm
What worried Marcus Grönholm most this morning was the Sun. Not that the Finn does not like the heat: he knew that opening the rally and being the first car out to sweep dry gravel roads would be very penalising indeed. Happily for Marcus however, overnight rain made a wished-for appearance and he found damp roads under his wheels instead of the muddy surface that would be served to the following drivers.

Despite recuperating from flu symptoms that weakened him physically, Grönholm would take advantage of his starting position and the favorable conditions to build a lead over the first two stages.

Loeb would afterwards also win two stages, but where the Finn took seconds in the morning, the Frenchman would only take back tenths of seconds during the afternoon.

Mikko Hirvonen considered he had made the wrong tyre choice in the morning. Although it was not quite astray from his team mate's, he believed the small difference in tyres made for a big difference on the timed trials. Hirvonen lost time during the whole day, ending the first leg in third place but nearly a minute away.

Loeb alone against Grönholm
On a type of terrain much to his liking, Marcus Grönholm set the pace right from the start. The Ford driver was speeding ahead at a rate the other drivers could not match - except for Loeb.

The Frenchman did lose time in the morning as he drove a Citroën fitted with the wrong tyre choice. The afternoon became quite a different story as Sébastien not only fought at the same pace as his rival but took two stages as well. That effort has not yet been enough however, for after reaching a peak of 14.8 seconds, the gap was only brought down to 13 seconds.

Dani Sordo still lacks a little experience on such terrain, where driver skills are of upmost importance. The Spaniard also had to make do with understeering issues which also hindered his progress. Floating a minute and a half away from the rally leader, he presently holds sixth place.