Day One at Rally Russia has concluded with a repeat passage over the Kutuzovo forest stage, where the damp gravel did not prevent the Skoda team's Juho Hanninen from signing his fourth stage win of the evening.

Crossing the 10-kilometre itinerary in 5:32.0, the Finn has made a clean sweep of today's stages. Teammate Jan Kopecky was not far behind aboard the other works Fabia S2000, taking second place 2.8sec away and confirming the Czech manufacturer's third one-two stage victory of the day.

The Skoda outfit is clearly on the path to its maiden IRC victory this weekend, but there remain two more days of racing to go before claiming that prize.

As he dealt with engine overheat issues Anton Alen completed his best run so far at this year's Russian round, setting the third-best time at the controls of his official Abarth Grande Punto, 6.2sec behind Kopecky.

However the Finn almost lost the position to the push delivered by Proton's Guy Wilks, 0.6sec close. Giandomenico Basso came next in fifth place aboard the other Abarth team car.

His engine problems having been fixed at service, current Russian rally champion Aleksandr Zheludov is picking up the pace with his Tsunami Rally Team Peugeot 207, taking sixth place on this run.

Seventh-fastest Franz Wittmann was given a 10-second penalty: the Interwetten Racing Mitsubishi driver arrived late at the start line following another puncture, this one occurring between SS3 and SS4.

At the conclusion of Rally Russia's Day One, the untroubled runs of Juho Hanninen and Jan Kopecky place the Skoda team firmly in the lead of this event, with the Finn holding an overall 27.5-second advantage on his Czech teammate.

46.5 seconds away from the rally leader, Guy Wilks has done a good job for the Proton operation by taking third position in the general standings. Between a puncture for one driver and engine worries for the other, this opening day proved difficult for the Abarth team with Giandomenico Basso and Anton Alen rounding out the top five over a minute away from the top spot.

The action on the gravel roads near Vyborg resumes tomorrow morning at 10:56 local time with two loops of three stages on the programme, delivering nearly 120 kilometres of competition.