After the openeing 3 stages of Neste Oil Rally Finland, Last years Finland winner, Sebastien Loeb holds a 7.3 second leading ahead of Team mate Mikko Hirvonen.

The Frenchman led from the start. Going fastest on SS1 and SS3. Saying he has found a good rhythem and pushed hard on the final stage of the evening to set him self up nicely for a long hard day on friday: “I feel well in the car at the moment and i tried really hard, I know i can fight for victory. I couldn’t go faster here (stage 3). Flat-out. Big push.”

Hirvonen holds 2nd and Latvala 3rd. Solberg was doing well battling for the lead, but on SS3 the Norwegian struggled with traction and lost a lot of time, dropping down to 6th.

End of Day1
Loeb
Hirvo+7.3
JML+7.3
Ostb+7.5
Neuv+9
PSolb+9.2
Atko+15.6