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WRC

Sebastien Loeb took victory on all six stages on day one to open up an ominous lead over title rival Mikko Hirvonen.

The Citroen driver, who entered the event holding a 12-point lead in the drivers' standings over Ford ace Hirvonen, dominated on the tight, twisting tarmac stages to repeat his achievements of a week ago where he won all the opening day's stages on his way to victory in Catalunya.

The only disappointment for the reigning world champion was the early retirement of team-mate Dani Sordo, who struck a wall less than a kilometre into stage three and broke the left-front suspension of his C4 WRC.

The Spaniard will re-enter the event under Superally rules on Saturday.

Citroen team boss Olivier Quesnel said: "In the second stage there was a lot of grip but on the third there wasn't as much and the road was bumpy. Dani I think was surprised and made a small mistake."

However, Loeb was justifiably delighted with his day`s work.

"Again, a perfect day," he said. "I've been pushing very hard but I've had no problems. Now we have a good lead but I feel so comfortable in the car I prefer to keep this same speed on Saturday rather than slow down and maybe lose concentration."

Second-placed Hirvonen, in desperate need of a good result if he is to keep the pressure on Loeb in the title race, trails his rival by 32.3 seconds with Francois Duval third in the sister Ford, and admitted he was simply unable to match the Frenchman's pace.

The Finn said: "I did try, but he's too fast, there's nothing much I could do.

"I'm happy with the car and my driving is quite okay, but it's just not enough against him."

Petter Solberg holds a fine fourth place in his Subaru Impreza after a set-up change before the stage six helped him to leapfrog the Ford of Jari-Matti Latvala and Subaru team-mate Chris Atkinson.

The Norwegian declared himself pleased with his pace on the French asphalt, having endured a tough weekend last time out in Spain.

"I did something before the stage that worked better, and that was not bad," he said. "Too much understeer, but it's getting better and better. Now I'm having fun."

Toni Gardemeister is seventh for Suzuki with Andreas Mikkelsen an excellent eighth in his privateer Ford Focus, despite picking up an 80 second penalty for booking into the first stage ahead of schedule.