But, despite setting fastest times on all of the first leg stages, to build a lead of 40 seconds, the young Finn knows his place and when the moment comes he will move aside for the current team leader Marcus Gronholm.

It all depends on Sebastien Loeb. Gronholm can only win the World title if Loeb finishes outside the top five places and at the end of the first leg in Swansea last night he was in a solid third.



Hirvonen was in a class of his own yesterday, six seconds faster than anyone else on the first stage at Port Talbot and going on to set five more fastest times at Resolfen and Rheola.

Gronholm eased past Loeb into second place but he could only wait and hope for a mistake from the World championship leader. Or for the chasing pack to speed up and overhaul the Frenchman.

Loeb remained steadfast in his plan to "play defence" and settle for the safe top five place he needs to remain champion.

A third Ford, the Stobart Focus of Jari-Matti Latvala, had been just 15 seconds behind in fourth but he lost over 15 minutes when the wipers broke on the final stage of the day, leaving Petter Solberg's Subaru as best of the rest but already almost a minute adrift of Loeb.

Then came the second Citroen C4 of Dani Sordo with Matthew Wilson up to sixth in the second Stobart Ford followed by the Subaru of Chris Atkinson and the Kronos Citroen Xsara of Manfred Stohl in the final points scoring position in eighth.

Back at the overnight halt Loeb and Gronholm both admitted that they were not pushing to the limit, although for different reasons.

"I don't need to push to the maximum," said Gronholm. "We just need to wait and see what happens to Sebastien."

"It's too tricky with the mud. And my fog lights didn't work on the last stage," added Loeb.

In the separate battle for the British championship, Guy Wilks had gained the upper-hand by winning the first leg ahead of his Mitsubishi team-mate Gwyndaf Evans.

It was Mark Higgins who was fastest on the opening loop of three stages to lead Wilks by six seconds. However Wilks moved up a gear and climbed to 13th overall, one place ahead of Evans but Higgins suffered broken wipers and dropped back to third.

Positions after stage 6: 1 Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus) 1 hr 17 mins 21.3 secs; 2 Marcus Gronholm (Ford Focus) + 39.6 secs; 3 Sebastien Loeb (Citroen C4) + 57.9 secs; 4 Petter Solberg (Subaru Impreza) + 1 min 34.0 secs; 5 Dani Sordo (Citroen C4) + 2 mins 37.9 secs; 6 Matthew Wilson (Ford Focus) + 5 mins 01.3 secs; 7 Chris Atkinson (Subaru Impreza) + 5 mins 02.3 secs; 8 Manfred Stohl (Citroen Xsara) + 5 mins 37.9 secs; 9 Xavier Pons (Subaru Impreza) + 5 mins 57.5 secs; 10 Andreas Mikkelsen (Ford Focus) + 6 mins 41.8 secs.