Its been a difficult start to Rally Sardinia as Volkswagens Sebastien Ogier takes the lead after stage 1.

Acropolis winner and fastest man in qualiyfying, Jari Matti latvala picked up a puncture 8km into the 31km stage. The fin lost nearly 2 minutes to leader ogier.

Dust has also been an issue on SS1, Andreas Mikkelsen said at stage end. “I could not see anything. Too close to Prokop. Too much dust!” And WRC2 & ex F1 driver Kubica also struggling, saying that, “I had a big problem in the dust…I was not pushing because I knew it was getting worse. I was getting closer and closer to Wiegand and it was very dangerous People are not realising we are driving flat out….without visibility you can see nowhere.” WRC 2 only get 1 minute intervals making the dust situation worst for them despite the road sweeping effect.

After SS1
Ogier leads,
Hirvonen +5.3
Novikov +8.5
Østberg +12.8
Sordo +17.2
Neuville +20.1
Mikkelsen +29.5
Prokop +1:01.7