Stobart Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala meanwhile is next up and on course for the final place on the rostrum. The Finn moved in front of Ford 'A' team member, Mikko Hirvonen on SS6 and then pulled away in the final loop to end the day 24.8 seconds in front.

Mikko was unable to respond this afternoon and slipped further and further back in the #2 BP Ford Focus. He complained that it has been a 'terrible' day and that he was unable to find a good rhythm.

Further down the order, Petter Solberg completed the top five for Subaru, although engine problems early on hampered his charge somewhat.

Britain's Guy Wilks was next up, after an impressive showing in his privately entered Impreza. Wilks set a number of top ten times and is currently on course to score his first ever 'senior' WRC points.

Of the rest, OMV Kronos Citroen's Manfred Stohl and Stobart Ford 'third' driver, Matthew Wilson came in seventh and eighth, followed by Tim McNulty and Gareth MacHale.

Mark Higgins lies just outside the top ten in eleventh – and in the lead in the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship category. Mark went in front this morning on SS2 and while he briefly lost the lead to Andreas Aigner in SS6, he re-took P1 on the next test, when the Austrian went out.

Mark, who needs to win to keep his PWRC title hopes alive, finished the day 55.5 seconds up Armindo Araujo, who is second in the class.

Gabriel Pozzo completes the PWRC podium at this stage - less than ten seconds further back. Pozzo, who like Higgins has an outside chance of depriving Toshi Arai of the PWRC title, needs to finish at least second to stay in the running.

A number of drivers' had problems during the first leg and were caught out by the muddy conditions.

In addition to Gronholm, Xavier Pons and Henning Solberg also retired. Pons went out in the same test as Marcus, after damaging his engine, while Henning hit a tree in SS8.

It is not yet known if any of them will be able to re-start under the SupeRally format.

The action now continues on Saturday – six stages lay in wait, totalling around 120 competitive kilometres. SS11, the 27.76 kilometre-run through Sloughan Glen 1 starts at 08.13 hours local time.

With rain forecast though, it is far from over and proceedings could yet take another twist...