Petter Solberg on top on day one in New Zealand

Petter Solberg has done it again, taking the lead on the opening day of World Rally Championship competition. The Norwegian campaigns a 2009 Citroen C4 as a privateer entry and already this season, the 2003 WRC champion has shown the potential of taking an overall event victory. He came close in Turkey, placing second to Sebastien Loeb.

"It has been very good today," said Solberg. "I have been calm, controlled and I feel great. The main thing for me is to know that Seb is behind me."

The first Norwegian to win a the World Rally title knows that there are still two days to contest and tomorrow he is the one who will sweep the roads, clearing them for his rivals.

"I just have to deal with it. Seb has done a good job today [cleaning the road] and I didn't do so bad myself [running just behind]", Solberg said who is only 1.4 seconds ahead of Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala.

In fact the elder statesman of the series has three young guns behind him. All want to take the lead, mainly on the final day as the loose gravel can cause anyone to slip and the sweeper each day has the hardest job.

Latvala leads the pack in his Ford Focus but only 2.5 seconds behind him is the Citroen Junior team driver Sebastien Ogier. Citroen's Dani Sordo sits 4.8 seconds off of the pace of Ogier.

In the morning stages, points leader Loeb was cleaning the roads and watching his rivals take the wins. Solberg and Ogier each had one apiece while Sordo took two.

On stage four, Loeb damaged his Citroen on a bridge and went from fourth to eighth. He ended the day in the special Auckland Domain with the win to move to seventh overall, over one minute adrift of Solberg.

"I lost the back of the car on the entry to a tight corner over a bridge," explained Loeb. "The back of the car slid and hit the bridge. I thought it was okay, so we drove on, but it wasn't and I was about to lose the door. I knew it was just a remote service after, so I had to keep the door. I stopped for one minute to try and close the door. I couldn't so I held it closed. The dust was very bad."

The overall lead traded off in the afternoon with Ogier taking two wins, Loeb on top in SS7 and Solberg adding to his earlier win.

Times after Day 1:

1. Petter SOLBERG 1:35:51.3
2. Jari-Matti LATVALA M 1:35:52.7
3. Sebastien OGIER 1:35:55.2
4. Dani SORDO M 1:36:00.0
5. Mikko HIRVONEN M 1:36:11.5
6. Matthew WILSON M 1:37:01.0
7. Sebastien LOEB M M 1:37:36.6
9. Jari KETOMAA S 1:40:09.3
10. Xavier PONS S 1:40:31.8
11. Federico VILLAGRA M 1:40:41.3

Source: WRC - Motorsport
Courtesy: luieluv