Hirvoven Leads In Portugal, Loeb Third

Hirvonen was 15 seconds ahead of Dani Sordo having benefitted from a mistake by the Spaniard in the fifth stage.

Hirvonen, overall runner-up last season, was 15 seconds ahead of Dani Sordo having benefitted from a mistake by the Spaniard in the fifth stage. The Citroen driver overshot a junction 800 metres from the start.

Sordo's team mate and championship leader Loeb, who has won the season's three events so far, made the same mistake in the same spot in stage two.

The Frenchman dropped to seventh after the error but won two later stages to end the day 18 seconds behind Hirvonen.

Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala, who won the two morning stages, crashed out of the competition in the next, going off the road at high speed and rolling several times before coming to rest in a ravine over 150 metres from the road.

The Finnish driver and his co-pilot Mikka Anttila were unhurt but Latvala's future in the Ford team is far from certain.

"I know that I have been giving the team a frustrating time," Latvala was quoted as saying on the World Rally website (wrc.com)

"They want to get good results, and want to take the fight to Citroen, and I want that too, but I have had too many crashes and that's made it difficult. (Ford principal) Malcolm (Wilson) is thinking what he will do next but the future is a little bit open now."

Latvala has finished on the podium only once this season, taking third in Norway.

"It's been a disastrous start to the season, the worst in a number of years," Ford principal Malcolm Wilson told the website.

"We tried a few things with Jari-Matti on the test, like trying to alter his pace notes but now we need to have another think," he added.

Double world champion Marcus Gronholm, who came out of retirement to enter the event, ended the first day in fourth.