Out of the 46 cars having crossed the start line of Rally Portugal last evening, four have already retired, including three Portugeuse crews. Vitor Sà, Ricardo Marques and Ricardo Costa have pulled out of the competition along with Italian driver Paolo Andreucci.

The day's six-test programme began with the classic 20-kilometre long Loulé stage, upon which a trio of Peugeot 207 Super 2000 cars took the honours. Nicolas Vouilloz was quickest with a time of 14:29.5, followed by Bruno Magalhaes and current IRC championship leader Luca Rossetti.

Italian driver Giandomenico Basso brought his Fiat Grande Punto into fourth place, ahead of the Peugeots driven by Austrian Manfred Stohl and Belgian Freddy Loix. François Duval's Fiat appeared next behind his countryman in seventh place.

The day's first stage also brought the first retirements. Offical Abarth driver Anton Alen opened the list following a transmission problem on his Grande Punto, while Armindo Araujo's Mitsubishi encountered turbo problems.

The general standings show that Nicolas Vouilloz has a 2.3-second lead on Bruno Magalhaes, nine seconds on Luca Rossetti. Giandomenico Basso is in fourth position only 0:00.2 away from Rossetti, with Manfred Stohl in fifth place 1.1 seconds away.