Wilson ended the day as the lead
Stobart Ford man, with
Henning Solberg one spot further down in eighth, after a slow start, while
Gigi Galli finished proceedings classified in 19th.
"Today has been a really good start to the rally and I’m starting to feel more comfortable on these tricky stages. Apart from having a couple of minor half spins which dropped us some time, it’s all went well today and I’m pleased with our performance," said the Brit.
Of the rest
Federico Villagra and Khalid Al-Qassimi completed the top ten, with Patrik Sandell eleventh in his Renault Clio S1600. Sandell incidentally heads the JWRC category, 54.8 seconds up on Jaan Molder, who is 'best of the rest' in the Junior class and twelfth overall.
In terms of retirements a number of drivers' had problems today, with
Suzuki WRT duo, Per-Gunnar Andersson and
Toni Gardemeister early casualties.
P-G went out in SS1, when he went off the road and was unable to rejoin in time, while Gardemeister stopped with engine problems after SS2.
"I am upset for the team because I wanted to get a result for them on this rally," said Toni. "I came here to drive well and to compete with the other cars on even ground. I do believe we could have made a result."
Petter Solberg was the next big scalp, when he hit a rock in SS6 and broke his front suspension, retiring from fifth. Galli also went out in that same test, while in sixth. He slid into a stone bank and damaged the rear differential cooler and exhaust, and the differential seized in the high temperatures. Both will re-start tomorrow under the SupeRally format, as will Andersson.
Conrad Rautenbach also added his name to the retirees list, despite completing all the stages. The Zimbabwean suffered clutch problems after SS8 and was unable to make it back to service. He will re-start on Saturday too.
