Norway's Petter Solberg snatched the early lead in the Rally of Australia today after Finland's Marcus Gronholm and Australia's Chris Atkinson both came to grief on an action-packed first full day.
Gronholm, who needs to win in Australia to have any hope of overtaking absent championship leader Sebastien Loeb, led overnight after winning the two short opening stages in Perth on Thursday.
However, he rolled his Ford on today's first stage in the forests of Western Australia, bending the car's steering arm. He was able to rejoin the rally, but his hopes of winning faded.
His car was filled with dust and he needed a new transmission after slipping back to 40th place, more than 12 minutes behind Sollberg, after the seventh of 26 stages.
Atkinson won the day's first three stages to open up a 13.6 second lead over his nearest rival, but rolled his Subaru on loose gravel on the sixth stage, starting a small fire and forcing organisers to cancel the stage for the production cars following behind.
Norway's Henning Solberg crashed his Peugeot at 180 km/h on the same stage, Britain's Matthew Wilson was forced to retire after hitting a rock and losing a wheel off his Ford on the first stage.
His Argentine team mate Luis Perez Companc spun off on the day's second stage.
Gronholm's Finnish team mate Mikko Hirvonen briefly moved into the overall lead after Atkinson's crash but slipped 2.7 seconds behind Sollberg after the Norwegian won the sixth and seventh stages in his Subaru.
Spain's Xavier Pons, driving a Citroen, was third overall after the seventh stage, ahead of Norway's Manfred Stohl in a Peugeot.
