Solberg takes early lead in Cyprus.

Subaru's Petter Solberg has taken the lead on the Cyprus Rally this morning - the Norwegian is now 5.0 seconds up on Marcus Gronholm, following the first three tests.

Rally Cyprus started with a pass through the longest and most gruelling stage of the event, the epic 38km test from Lagoudera [SS1].

Beginning with a tricky uphill climb and series of demanding, narrow tight bends, the opening stage provided the first indication of competitors' form on extremely rough-terrain. A rough first section gave way to fast tarmac, followed by a final, rough twisty section to the finish, meaning drivers had to balance outright speed with tyre preservation. Pushing too hard on this, the first of a group of three stages, would have scrubbed tread off the tyres and adversely affected performance for the next two.

Fresh from his win in New Zealand, 2003 Cyprus Rally victor Solberg set the fastest time in his Impreza WRC2004 to take the stage win, despite collecting three punctures. Harri Rovanpera was second with his Peugeot team-mate, Marcus Gronholm third.

Not such a great stage for Ford's Francois Duval. The Belgian knocked a front left wheel off his Ford Focus 5km from the finish and was unable to continue.

Continuing his winning form, Petter Solberg was again fastest over SS2 [Kourdali - Asinou 15.00km] to take his second win of the day and increase his lead to 6.4 seconds. Citroen's Sebastien Loeb was second fastest, while Gronholm was third.

Having struggled to prepare their cars to the latest specification before the start of the event due to the late arrival of works team's equipment boat to Cyprus, there were problems for Mitsubishi. During the stage, both Lancers suffered with shock absorber problems and team drivers Gilles Panizzi and Kristian Sohlberg finished ninth and sixteenth fastest respectively. Winding through a man-made park in the Island's Troodos Mountains, the rocky stage included numerous narrow bridge crossings and a rough, loose gravel road surface. After the finish, crews moved to the start of SS3.

Loeb ended Solberg's run of stage wins on the first pass through the short test from Asinou [SS3] and was fastest for his first win of the day. Driving with new suspension and transmission settings on his Xsara, the renowned tarmac expert was 0.9 seconds quicker than the rest of the field. Gronholm was second fastest, while Solberg set another excellent time to finish third.

Referred to by Subaru's co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen as 'the twistiest of the day', the short stage started on a rough medium-fast surface, before concluding with a series of fast, flowing bends. There were no retirements and after the finish crews returned to Lemesos for the first service of the day.

"It's very rough and the conditions are quite difficult," reflected Solberg in service A, "I tried to be careful, but there were lots of rocks around. I think that maybe my driving was too aggressive on the first stage and I got three punctures, but generally things are going very well. With three punctures, I couldn't move the tyres around as I would have liked and so one of the front tyres was completely worn when we got back to service. I had a small mistake on the tarmac section in SS1 where it was very slippery. You have to keep focused here - one rock can catch you out. I'm going to try to keep a good pace, but you don't have to lead this rally at the end of the first day, you just have to still be in it."

Gronholm, who lies second overall, added: "So far, so good! I'm feeling confident and the car has not given me the slightest problem. On the first stage this morning I was maybe a little too cautious, so I decided to push harder on the second and third stages. The first stage was probably the roughest, but the second two were not so bad. If we can keep going like this, I will be happy."

The action will now resume at 1438 hours local time, when this morning's three stages will be repeated to conclude leg 1.