PERTH, Australia (AFP) - Veteran Finn Marcus Gronholm blitzed the field by winning five of the opening nine stages of Rally Australia as top drivers continued to drop out of contention in testing conditions.
Gronholm, driving a Peugeot 307, a three-time winner of the event between 2000-2002, again showed his ability to cope with the tricky gravel stages of the first leg which added Subaru driver Petter Solberg from Norway to the growing list of top-flight retirements.
Only new world champion Sebastien Loeb of France driving a Citroen Xsara was able to keep in touch with Gronholm, winning the fourth and fifth stages to stay within 21.4 seconds of the leader at the end of the first leg.
Gronholm's compatriot and teammate Harri Rovanpera ended the day in third place overall, 1:06.6 behind Gronholm, with Belgian Francois Duval in a Ford Focus fourth.
Another Finn, Mikko Hirvonen, who suffered some brake problems in his Subaru, was running fifth at 3:21.2.
"This has been a near-perfect start to the rally -- we've had no problems at all," Gronholm said Friday.
"The car has been working well and we are pushing hard without taking unnecessary risks.
"Sebastien Loeb is coming quickly behind us so we have to keep going at a good pace."
Solberg's retirement was a major blow for the event -- he was in second place overall when a steering arm on his Subaru was broken after he hit a rock and slid off the road in the fourth stage.
The damage ended his campaign to finish among the points, although the car was repaired in time to compete in the two super special stages in Perth city on Friday night -- both of which Solberg won.
"It's too bad, I didn't want to end the season like this, but that's just how it is sometimes," he said.
Earlier in the day Estonian Markko Martin, currently third in the world championship standings, was also forced out of the competition, joining Spaniard Carlos Sainz on the sidelines.
Martin's Ford Focus blew a piston after just two kilometres of the opening 2.35 kilometre super special stage in Perth on Thursday night and could not be repaired for Friday's stages through forest south of the city.
Sainz, the two-times world champion Citroen driver who was due to retire at the completion of Rally Australia, was prevented from taking part in the event when he crashed in a practice run earlier in the week injuring his neck.
Loeb, who clinched his first world championship after last month's rally in Corsica, has won five rallies this year and is aiming to equal the record of six in one year by winning here.
But the 30-year-old Frenchman is driving for only the second time in Australia in conditions which are not his favourite and now faces a difficult assignment to overthrow Gronholm.
"Marcus is very fast," he said after the seventh stage. "I'm 20 seconds slower than (at this point) last year."
The 25-stage Rally Australia runs until Sunday.
11/12/2004 - 13:49 GMT - AFP