The afternoon session saw the two Fords battle it out between themselves, but running first on the stages, even in the afternoon (the morning stages are repeated) causes the cars to be slower than those that start further down the order. This is due to the slower cars using less neat lines when they ran through them earlier in the day, and actualy tends to drag loose material onto the racing line. Loeb managed to be the fastest on stages four and five, and caught up to Petter Solberg during the afternoon sessions.
To add insult to injury for Petter Solberg, not only is Loeb faster but a rock went into the engine oil cooler and the new Subaru had to drop out. This handed the lead to Loeb in the C4, and second place to Chris Atkinson in the second, and now only, Subaru.
The last stage, a Super Special, sees Manfred Stohl lose control of the front end of the car, causing him to slide off into the protective tyre barrier, resulting in him losing ten seconds, and allowing Gronholm to overtake him for fifth position going into day two.
Day 2
Gronholm should have been quicker on day two, as the Ford engineers located a faulty temperature sensor causing an approximate ten percent loss in the engine power of his Ford Focus. He showed that the car ran better by eating into the time of Dani Sordo. Miko Hirvonen was also quick in the other Ford, overtaking Chris Atkinson for second spot behind Loeb, who - with a 37.6 second lead - extended the gap to the others by finishing fastest on the opening stage of the day. Gronholm and Loeb traded fastest stage times for the next couple of stages. This allowed Gronholm to pass everyone except for Loeb, and take the second spot. He was, however, 57.6 seconds behind the C4 of Loeb.
The second run through the next two stages saw Chris Atkinson's Subaru lose a lot of time. It seems that the new Subaru may still be a little fragile, but the pace of the cars of both Subaru drivers bodes well for the team; if the small gremlins can be solved, the car will be a championship competitor. Mikko Hirvonen also had issues on stage 13, dropping 30 seconds after loosing the back of his Focus and just narrowly staying on the road; this dropped him to fourth behind Daniel Sordo, Marcus Gronholm and Sebastien Loeb.
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