Subaru #2 well placed in Mexico.

Subaru's Chris Atkinson has finished the opening day of the Corona Rally Mexico in a strong third place.

Atkinson, who was running sixth in the order on Friday, had a consistent day and was in the top three from the off, notching up five top-three times in total during the day's eight stages.

Indeed despite having to drive on one of the afternoon's stages with a malfunctioning intercom, which meant he was unable to hear Stephane Prevot's pace-notes and despite a small spin in the final super special stage, he managed to end the leg 12.8 seconds off Sebastien Loeb in second and 39.5 seconds up on his team-mate, Petter Solberg in fourth.

"Today has not been bad for us and we're in a good position to push hard tomorrow," said the Aussie. "We'll have to see whether we can close the gap to Sebastien and Jari-Matti [Latvala] as it won't be easy.

"It was my mistake to spin in the final stage, and giving a few seconds away to these guys isn't the smartest, but that's how it goes. It won't be easy for sure, and I have Petter and [Mikko] Hirvonen behind so we will push hard as always and see."

Petter meanwhile was pretty happy to end the day fourth in the sister Impreza WRC car, especially as he lost 50 seconds on the first loop with brake problems.

"Considering we lost nearly a minute this morning, fourth today is not bad. We have won two stages, and we are pushing so hard but it will not be easy. We have two tough days left," added 'Hollywood'.

"The rocks in the stages this afternoon were incredible, just right in the middle of the road. They were so big, I don't know how they got there. If I didn't go off the road to avoid them, that would have been it. When you're going flat out, it's hard to avoid things like that but you still just have to commit."