At the end of the opening leg of the 50th Rallye de France - Tour de Corse, reigning FIA World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb leads the field of contenders in a Citroën Xsara WRC. The Frenchman, who claimed a home victory in 2005, has largely dominated the leg by winning three of the four stages and takes a 19.9 second advantage into Saturday’s competition.

Second position is held by Marcus Grönholm, the Finn the only other driver to have claimed a stage victory today. As the pace-setter on the Spanish asphalt two weeks ago, the combination of Grönholm and the Ford Focus is of little surprise, but both he and Loeb have streaked ahead of their rivals to sit in a league of their own.

Alexandre Bengue, who finished fourth in Spain, has gone one better today and overnights on the provisional podium in a privately-entered Peugeot 307 WRC. He is however in the thick of a fight with Ford’s second registered driver, Mikko Hirvonen, and the pair remain set on battling for an all-important podium place.

For former World Champion Petter Solberg, his 2006 Championship assault has yet to come together and the Subaru driver lies in 14th position after 121 competitive kilometres. A damaged exhaust and gear selection problems see the Norwegian more three minutes adrift of Loeb.

Rallye de France - Tour de Corse – Results after Leg 1
 

1	Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena	Citroën Xsara WRC	1 hr 13 min 18.9sec
2	Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen	Ford Focus RS WRC	1 hr 13 min 38.8sec
3	Alexandre Bengue/Caroline Escudero	Peugeot 307 WRC	1 hr 14 min 34.5sec
4	Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	1 hr 14 min 42.3sec
5	Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti	Citroën Xsara WRC	1 hr 14 min 55.5sec
6	Xavier Pons/ Carlos Del Barrio	Citroën Xsara WRC	1 hr 15 min 03.5sec

 Note to Editors: Attached image of rally leader Sébastien Loeb is copyright free for editorial use - please click here.