Solberg takes early initiative

Petter Solberg, the world champion, set the pace at the start of Rally Mexico yesterday.

The Norwegian, driving a Subaru, won the 29-kilometre first stage in 16 minutes 38.7 seconds to claim an early lead of 8.7sec from the two-time former champion Marcus Gronholm's Peugeot. Citroën's Sébastien Loeb, who leads the drivers' championship after winning the first two rallies of the season, is in contention again, just 14.1sec off the pace in fourth, with Ford's Markko Martin third.

Alister McRae's chances of taking the lead in the production car championship were hit by a slow time on stage one. The Scotsman, who is competing in the secondary championship as he bids to regain his position among the World Rally big guns, is almost a minute off the class leader, Toshihiro Arai.

McRae, the younger brother of the former world champion Colin, who was squeezed out of the sport's élite when he was dropped by Mitsubishi in 2002,said: "Obviously I will think about it according to how the results are panning out, but to win the title you need to win events - and that means driving at 100 per cent all the time. There is no chance of easing off just yet. With only six events in the championship you can't really afford a retirement, so you always have to think cautiously, but at the pace you need to be going at to win you have to take some risks."