Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) overcame Leg 1's awesome conditions to complete the opening leg of the 2007 Wales Rally GB on top with a handsome lead of 30.6 seconds over his team-mate Marcus Grönholm. Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) follows in third spot and, as the provisional leaderboard stands, he has one hand on this year's drivers' crown, although there is still a very long way to go.
Today's menu featured lashings of rain, mud and fog as the Wales Rally GB lived every bit up to the reputation of the RAC Rallies of yesteryear. During the morning, and especially during the first stage north of the 'seaside resort' of Port Talbot, drivers had to contend with a real pea-souper...
That, however, didn't appear to trouble Mikko Hirvonen who immediately posted his first fastest time of the day. The Finn, who has a free hand this weekend, then added two further best times to his tally before returning to the lunchtime service break in Swansea on top of the timesheets ahead of his team-mate and 2007 title challenger Marcus Grönholm.
"It felt like a perfect stage; I don't know if I could drive that well again," commented Hirvonen at the end of SS3.
After the first three extremely muddy tests, Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) was third which meant he was 'virtually' World Champion since he only needs to finish fifth in Wales to make sure of the title. Jari-Matti Latvala was fourth, 7 seconds behind Loeb, while Petter Solberg followed in fifth, but already 32s adrift of the Citroën driver. Loeb seemed to have everything under control.
The second loop was a repeat of the morning's group of three stages which proved just as challenging for competitors, especially the second visit to Rheola which was little more than a 27.9km-long stream, as torrential rain moved in over South Wales, bringing mud, running water and rocks onto the forest tracks with darkness setting in fast!
Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena started this memorable stage at 16h23 and crossed the finish line exactly after 17m 11.1s, although they didn't appear to have been particularly thrilled by the experience!
"I couldn't see a thing because I had a problem with my foglamps and I couldn't run on full beam because of the fog. We even found ourselves without lights at one point," reported the Frenchman who nonetheless set the fourth-quickest time, albeit more than 30s off the pace of Mikko Hirvonen (Ford).
Hirvonen completed the day on top ahead of Grönholm (Ford) and Sébastien Loeb (Citroën), but Jari-Matti Latvala lost 10 minutes on the final stage which handed fourth place to Norway's Petter Solberg who was third on the daunting SS6 despite a broken damper.
The same stage saw his Subaru team-mate Chris Atkinson (8th) lose an estimated two minutes because of a misting up windscreen. Dani Sordo (Citroën) is fifth tonight ahead of Manfred Stohl (Citroën).
Gabriel Pozzo (Mitsubishi) had to win Group N if he wanted to prevent Arai and BFGoodrich from triumphing in the 2007 P-WRC. The Argentine driver went off however and, even if he takes up the opportunity of re-starting on Saturday under the SupeRally ruling, he looks unlikely to score the result he needs to take the crown.
Saturday's notorious stages to the north of Swansea – namely Crychan, Epynt and Halfway – will be contested twice each prior to the evening's super-special in Cardiff. The rally ends with a sting in the tail in the form of two long tests which, by all accounts, promise to be extremely muddy indeed.
