Gronholm takes commanding lead

World champion Marcus Gronholm, in a Peugeot, held a commanding lead after the opening day of Rally New Zealand, round four of the 14-round World Rally Championship.

The sunshine of the past few days gave way to rain as the cars began the nine stages and the conditions threw pre-event tactical planning into disarray.

The advantage of running further back on the road was negated but there was an element of the lottery about who got the best conditions as rain fell intermittently throughout the day.

As the Finn drove into the distance, a fierce battle was developing for second place with Estonian Markko Martin in a Ford Focus WRC just holding off Subaru’s Norwegian ace Petter Solberg after a tense battle.

Should either falter then Briton Richard Burns, in a Peugeot, is poised to strike after edging out Finnish team-mate Harri Rovanpera for fourth place.

“These are almost the conditions we were praying for,” said Burns. “Running first on the road as championship leader would have been a nightmare if the roads were completely dry so we’ve actually kept the time loss to a minimum.”

But there was bad news for fellow Briton Colin McRae in his Citroen.

The former world champion landed heavily on the sixth stage and damaged the suspension of his Xsara WRC.

Although he limped to the end of the stage it was clear that, with three more stages to complete before service, there was absolutely no chance of continuing in the event.

McRae’s younger brother Alister had been out of rally action for six months after bruising his liver in a cycling accident but is contesting this event in a privately-run Mitsubishi.

And he admitted that he is feeling rusty. “I need to get back to rally speed as quickly as possible but it is taking time,” he said.

His inexperienced team-mate Kristian Sohlberg of Finland was actually a minute ahead of him at the end of the day.