Sebastien Loeb dominated day one of the Rally of Cyprus, winning five of the six stages to open up a huge lead.
Reigning world champion wins five out of six stages on opening day
Sebastien Loeb dominated day one of the Rally of Cyprus, winning five of the six stages to open up a huge lead.
The reigning world champion, who had admitted concerns over using one type of tyre throughout, finished 41.8 seconds clear of the field.
Dani Sordo, Loeb's team-mate, finally broke the Frenchman's winning run when he took a rain-hit sixth stage to leave him in second place overnight.
Mikko Hirvonen is in third, well adrift of the two Citroens, followed by his Ford colleague, Jari-Matti Latvala.
Petter Solberg and Sebastien Ogier, both driving Citroens, are fifth and sixth respectively, with Russian Evgeny Novikov next. Stobart Ford's British driver Matthew Wilson rounds out the top eight.
However, the chasing pack will do well to catch Loeb. Day two sees the Limassol-based event switch to stages run on gravel.
Too careful
The Frenchman felt his advantage could have been even greater had he not backed off when the weather worsened in the afternoon.
"I was a bit too careful in the rain in some places," he said. "It was the last stage of the day and I didn't want to make any mistakes as I have a good lead. I didn't take big risks.
"Tomorrow we have to clean the road but if it's raining it shouldn't be too bad. We'll try and continue like this."
Hirvonen was not so happy after his opening efforts, as he struggled to adapt to running gravel tyres on the asphalt surface.
The Finn already admits he will struggle to get near his title rival after a slow start left him lagging well behind.
"The afternoon was good, we lost maybe 14 seconds to Sebastien, which is acceptable," he said afterwards. "But in the morning we just didn't know what to do.
"I didn't know how to drive in these conditions with gravel tyres. If it rains, Sebastien will be in a really good position for tomorrow. It's going to be difficult to catch him."
