Loeb and Sordo show the way in Germany.

Kronos Citroen number one driver, Sebastien Loeb has begun his bid to win the Rallye Deutschland for the fifth year in succession perfectly and following the opening four tests, the Frenchman heads into the first service with a 20-odd second lead.

Conditions were treacherous on the first stage of the event, the 20.04 kilometre run through Ruwertal/Fell 1 and the slippery surface, produced by heavy rain, grape mulch and mud caused problems for a number of drivers. It didn't seem to affect Loeb though, who was quickest through the test, 8.8 seconds up on the next fastest driver. Loeb's form continued in SS2 as well and although he was second quickest, he increased his lead to 14.4 seconds and then stretched it further after winning SS3, to take a 26.1 lead into SS4. He was then third through the final test of the morning, to head into service A, with a comfortable lead over his team-mate, Daniel Sordo.

Sordo was once again on it and on his debut in the 2006 spec Xsara, with passive differentials, the Spaniard put in a top performance, winning SS2 and SS4, to give Kronos a clean-sweep.

BP Ford team leader, Marcus Gronholm is 'best of the rest' after Loeb and Sordo, the Finn though is around 15 seconds or so off Sordo. Gronholm struggled early on and admitted he wasn't comfortable in the wet. He damaged the rear of his Focus in SS1 when he went straight on under braking into a fence. As the conditions dried out though he recovered some of the lost time and will now head into the afternoon's tests, a repeat of those run this morning, hoping it stays dry.

Petter Solberg finished up fourth, the Norwegian leaving service with what the team described as a 'near-immaculate' car, despite his big off in the shakedown on Thursday. Subaru's mechanics worked through the night to sort the car and Petter duly rewarded their efforts with the second quickest time in SS1 and fourth in SS2, before conditions dried out, dropping him down the order. On the wrong tyres he could only set the 11th best time in SS3 and was 7th in SS4.

Further-down the order, OMV Peugeot's Manfred Stohl rounds out the top five, the Austrian managing the second best time in SS2 in his 307, while Toni Gardemeister is sixth, in his Astra-run Citroen Xsara, ahead of Red Bull Skoda's Andreas Aigner and First Skoda's Francois Duval.

Chris Atkinson lies ninth in the 'third' Subaru WRT Impreza with Jan Kopecky tenth and Stephane Sarrazin eleventh.

Of the rest, Xavier Pons is twelfth, despite an off in SS4 due to an error in his pacenotes. The Spaniard went off the road at a left-hand corner and into the grape vines. He finished the stage with squashed grapes stuck onto the windscreen and under the bonnet clips, nearly one minute slower than his Kronos team-mate and stage winner, Sordo.
Pieter Tsjoen is next up, followed by Mikko Hirvonen and Mattias Ekstrom, the latter struggling on his second outing with the Red Bull Skoda. Hirvonen also had a difficult morning and went off the road twice in SS1 - he now lies over 2 minutes off the lead and over 1.5 minutes off his BP Ford team-mate, Gronholm.

Ford's 'B' had a nightmare start, with Jari-Matti Latvala crashing out on the first stage. The stage was stopped and then cancelled while his Stobart VK Focus was removed to a safe location. As a result of his off, only 18 drivers completed the stage at 'race speed', the rest were given notional times. Matthew Wilson didn't fare much better in the sister Stobart Ford either. Wilson Jr went off and damaged the front of his car in SS1, before he lost even more time in SS4, when his engine lost power following a heavy landing, 3 kilometres into the 16.98 km Moselwein run. He lost more than 4 minutes as a result.

In the Junior WRC, Kris Meeke led following SS2 and SS3, however he dropped down the order following SS4, promoting Bernd Casier into P1. The Renault Clio driver will go into this afternoon's stages 10.5 seconds up on Brice Tirabassi's Citroen C2, with local ace, Aaron Burkart third, 6 seconds further back.

The action now resumes at 14.34 hours local time, with SS5, Ruwertal/Fell 2 [20.04 km].