Trier, July 26: Richard Burns of Great Britain driving a Peugoet moved into the lead after the first day of the Rally of Germany. Briton Richard Burns mastered changes of surface and stayed free of mechanical trouble to end the opening day of the Rally of Germany in the lead on Friday (July 25). The world championship leader, chasing his first win of the year, was fastest in four of the day's seven timed stages, with a mixture of fast sprints on asphalt and treacherous drives on dirty military roads. Breathing down his neck was Peugeot team mate Marcus Gronholm of Finland, the defending world champion, who was second overall 9.4 seconds back. Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, who won the rally when it made its world championship debut last year, was also dangerously close, in third position in a Citroen, 10.3 seconds off the lead.


Burns set the early pace with the fastest time in the first two sections. Ford driver Markko Martin was in third place overall when he clocked the fastest time in the third section through the vineyards of the Mosel Valley to move into second.


Estonian Martin then claimed the longest and trickiest timed stage of the three day event, a 35.42-km stretch on tank-proving grounds on a military range with many changes of surface, to take the overall lead.


But Martin experienced gearbox problems in the fifth stage. Without his top two gears, he lost some 50 seconds while Burns sprinted to his third stage win of the day to move back in front.


Martin's misfortune left him out of contention at the end of the day in 10th position, 1:27 behind the leader. Loeb broke the Burns-Martin duopoly on the day's timed stages with the best time in the penultimate stretch but in the final run Burns was quickest again.


There are nine timed stages in a busy programme on Saturday with more rough drives in the Baumholder military range.


Leading positions in the Rally of Germany after the opening day's seven timed stages on Friday (July 25): 1. Richard Burns (Britain) Peugeot one hour eight minutes 45.1 seconds 2. Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot 9.4 seconds behind 3. Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen 10.3 4. Colin McRae (Britain) Citroen 29.0 5. Gilles Panizzi (France) Peugeot 43.1 6. Carlos Sainz (Spain) Citroen 47.0 7. Francois Duval (Belgium) Ford 49.9 8. Cedric Robert (France) Peugeot 55.6 9. Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru 1:14.9 10. Markko Martin (Estonia) Ford 1:27.6


Bureau Report