2007 Tour de Corse - Leg One

1. BP-Ford

Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen ended today's opening leg of Rallye de France in second position after a thrilling daylong battle for supremacy with arch world championship title rival Sébastien Loeb. The BP-Ford World Rally Team drivers led throughout the morning in their Focus RS World Rally Car before the Frenchman fought back to take a slender 4.8sec advantage.

Team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen retired on the final speed test of the morning after crashing their Focus RS into a concrete block.

Although the rear of the car was badly damaged, the Finns will return tomorrow under SupeRally regulations.

Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen: "Loeb can't afford to relax because I will keep pushing just as hard tomorrow. I knew I could match his times on asphalt in the dry and it's still perfectly possible to win this rally. I made a few small mistakes on the final stage, nothing major, but they cost me a few tenths of a second on each occasion. It's unfortunate that I can't start behind Loeb tomorrow to monitor his times but the gap is so small that we both have to drive flat out anyway."

Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen: "My pace notes were too fast for a left corner and I entered the bend too quickly. The car slid wide towards a concrete block and I hit it just where the suspension is attached to the bodyshell. I was lucky that the car slid rather than went straight on because there was a big drop off the edge. I knew we weren't going to get round and the concrete blocks aren't that soft around here."

2. Citroen Total

Sébastien Loeb, Daniel Elena and their Citroën C4 WRC completed the first leg of the 2007 Tour de Corse at the top of the overnight standings, with Dani Sordo and Marc Martí following in third place with the second Citroën Sport car.

Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena: "I felt more confident after the modifications we made to the set-up of my C4 after the morning's loop. It's nice to be ahead this evening but victory is by no means in the bag yet."

Dani Sordo/Marc Marti: No quote available

3. Subaru

At the end of the first day of competition in Corsica, the Subaru World Rally Team Imprezas of Petter Solberg, Chris Atkinson and Xevi Pons hold fifth, seventh and eighth places respectively.

Petter Solberg/Phil Mills: "Today has been a bit frustrating as we have finished 5.3 seconds behind Duval in fifth place, but I had a stall at the start of SS5 in which I lost six or eight seconds and we have had troubles with grip today. Still, we are in fifth overall after the first leg and close enough to fourth for it to be possible so we will keep pushing. We have won here in the past and hope that we can have a good result this weekend."

Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot: "The middle stint of the last stage wasn't so bad, but the bumpy sections of route seemed to suit me better today than the very smooth asphalt. I don't have the confidence to push hard, and to commit to the faster, longer corners. The car is well balanced but it's very difficult to predict the grip. We have taken the steps that seem logical to arrive at a good setup but they don't seem to work so we will have to try something different."

Xavier Pons/Xavier Amigo: "Today was not so good for me as I don't feel that I can push hard enough at the moment. We made some changes to the car and the afternoon loop was better, but I'd like to be higher than we are after today and so we will keep pushing as hard as we can to develop the feeling in the car. There are still two more days and ten stages, so I hope that tomorrow we will be faster and on leg three faster still. It would be a great boost to the team to be able to go to Japan knowing we have good pace."

4. OMV Kronos Citroen

The OMV Kronos Citroën World Rally Team has finished the first day of the Rallye de France - Tour de Corse in fourth and twelfth place. Francois Duval/Patrick Pivato (Bel/Fra) impressively proved their forte on tarmac and lie only behind Ford driver Marcus Grönholm and the Citroën works drivers Loeb and Sordo.

Francois Duval/Patrick Pivato: "Unfortunately it is impossible to attack the first three. But we can still be satisfied with our performance."

Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor: "I'm simply thinking too much. Of course, there is always that security-issue in the back of my mind. Since the Kronos Team has shown immense commitment to make this start possible I don't want to do too much damage since they'd get into problems concerning the rally in Japan otherwise."

5. Stobart M-Sport Ford

Round 13 of the FIA World Rally Championship kicked off this morning as crews headed out to tackle the notoriously testing roads of Rallye de France - Tour de Corse. By the end of today's leg the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford rally team has both its nominated points-scoring crews inside the top-ten and both in manufacturer point positions.

Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud: "Our tyres worked really well this afternoon and we tried to push on a bit harder than this morning. We still have a lot of things to learn about this rally especially with the braking points and car setup but it is my first time at this event and to finish the first day inside the top-ten is not so bad. I'm keen to get as much experience from this event as possible and so I can't make any stupid mistakes and throw away the chance. The stages are tricky in places and I'm not planning to do anything stupid. My pace notes are too slow in some places so we are losing time there and also I think the narrow roads are better for us; it is the wider, fast sections where we are dropping time."

Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila: "I'm very happy with the first day here, everything has been really good. The car is working well and the setup I have now is nearly perfect. Every tyre choice we have made today has been perfect also and the choices have given me confidence to push harder. I have been concentrating today on improving my driving and this has been working and now my confidence is quite high. However, I still must be careful as I nearly got caught out on some gravel today, it was on the exit of a corner and we were very sideways, I was lucky to get away with it. Overall I have been pleased with my start today and hopefully we can improve tomorrow and move up a couple of places."

Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr: "This morning we struggled on the narrow sections of road but the car felt really good on the fast wide roads and my times were very good there. Today's roads were half bumpy and half smooth so we had to compromise on setup but tomorrow is nearly all bumpy and narrow so I think we will make some changes to the suspension tonight. I thought I drove better on the narrow roads on the second pass this afternoon but unfortunately the times did not reflect this. The tyres worked well as all our choices today were correct."

6. Munchis Ford

Munchis Ford are not entered in Corsica.

7. Skoda Czech Rally Team

No information available at time of going to press.

Jan Kopecky/Filip Schovanek: No quote available.

__________________________________________________________________

Remaining Event Schedule

Saturday 13 October: Leg 2 Ajaccio - Ajaccio

Start Place de Gaulle 08.00

Serv C Port CCI (10 mins) 08.10

SS7 Carbuccia - Scalella 21.88km 08.58

SS8 Calcatoggio - Plage du Liamone 26.55km 10.31

SS9 Vico - Col St Roch 13.04km 11.29

Serv D Port CCI (30 mins) 13.14

SS10 Carbuccia - Scalella 21.88km 14.22

SS11 Calcatoggio - Plage du Liamone 26.55km 15.55

SS12 Vico - Col St Roch 13.04km 16.53

Serv E Port CCI (45 mins) 18.13

Finish Port CCI 18.58

Total 122.94km

Sunday 14 October: Leg 3 Ajaccio - Ajaccio

Start Place de Gaulle 07.45

Serv F Port CCI (10 mins) 07.55

SS13 Penitencier Coti - Pietra Rossa 24.24km 08.53

SS14 Pont de Calzola - Agosta 31.81km 09.36

Serv G Port CCI (30 mins) 11.01

SS15 Penitencier Coti - Pietra Rossa 24.24km 12.19

SS16 Pont de Calzola - Agosta 31.81km 13.02

Finish Place Foch 14.02

Total 112.10km

Rally total 359.32km