FIA World Rally Championship leader Marcus Gronholm has already stamped his authority on the sixth round of the series, the Rally Argentina, which began in earnest this morning. Yesterday's action took crews into the mountain roads to the north of Cordoba. Gronholm was fastest on the opening three stages and as weather conditions worsened this afternoon, he charged further ahead to end the opening day with a lead of more than a minute and a half.
Behind the Peugeot driver, there has been a close battle between Tommi Mäkinen and Richard Burns for second overall. The scrap swung back and forth in the final two stages as both drivers fought with poor visibility and Mäkinen hit gearbox problems. The Subaru driver eventually ended the day just over 20 seconds clear of the reigning world champion, with the other works Impreza of Petter Solberg just over six seconds further back in fourth.
Despite the poor weather conditions and notoriously tricky Argentine stages, there have been few retirements among the leading crews, although François Delecour's Lancer succumbed to accident damage and Armin Schwarz's Hyundai stopped with fuel pressure at the end of SS9.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
