Gronholm and Loeb locked in battle

Marcus Gronholm and Sebastien Loeb were embroiled in a tense battle for victory in the Rally of Turkey after a closely fought opening day.

Gronholm trails Loeb by just 7.5 seconds after the first full day of the rally, with the pair set for a titanic scrap on the remaining two days, which feature 219 competitive kilometres.

After Markko Martin won a short opening stage on Thursday night, the event got under way properly yesterday and Loeb proved to be the man to beat in his Citroen with two consecutive stage wins giving him an early cushion.

But Gronholm chipped away at that advantage as the pair dominated day one of the rally.