Henning Solberg, elder brother of Petter, saw his hopes of a top-three finish dashed when he was forced to stop on stage nine with mechanical problems.

BBC: Marcus Gronholm had won four of the six stages on day one

Evgeny Novikov (Citroen Junior) finished the day in fifth place after rivals Henning Solberg (Stobart Ford), Dani Sordo (Citroen) and Mads Ostberg (Adapta Subaru) all hit problems.

CNN: Hirvonen slashes Latvala's rally lead

Latvala was on course for third but an electrical problem pegged him back eight minutes this morning and he ended up sixth, behind Henning Solberg in third, fourth-placed Federico Villagra and Matthew Wilson in fifth position.

CNN: Loeb makes it five from five in Argentina