The first day of action at Rally Argentina concluded with a second passage over the La Cumbre – Agua de Oro stage, the same challenging gravel route which opened the festivities this morning.
The trip through this tricky yet open terrain served as the tie-breaker for the rally lead as well.

The Ford team's Jari-Matti Lavala was the quickest driver to complete the 15-kilometre distance, recording a best time of 12:32.4 as he crossed the finish line.

However, it was Dani Sordo's second-fastest result which counted in the overall standings, since the Spaniard set himself in the lead of Rally Argentina at the end of Day One.
With the lead changing hands several times today, with close overall times, and with two more days of racing to cover, the deal is obviously far from done for Sordo.
"I hope tomorrow will be better," said the Citroen team driver as he hopes to widen the gap.
4.6 seconds off the stage-winning time, the Petter Solberg World Rally Team car set the third-best result on this run. "The road was rougher than in the morning," said Solberg. "We made a couple of mistakes but still I think we had an excellent performance."

The Stobart Ford entry driven by Henning Solberg came next, while Sebastien Loeb's factory Citroen C4 claimed sixth position nearly 15 seconds off the stage leader. "The engine cut out twice and we lost time," the Frenchman explained.
Loeb's engine cut-off problems were a gift to the hard-pushing Petter Solberg, who maintains his fourth position overall but now stands only 2.6 seconds away from the five-time champion – a margin close enough for the Norwegian to take advantage of any other issues which might affect Loeb.Henning Solberg is nearly a half-minute further down the line, but chances are Jari-Matti Latvala will attempt to close his 18.5-second gap and re-enter the top five before Day Two concludes.

Federico Villagra signed the seventh-best result only a tenth of a second off Loeb's time; the Argentinean was followed by the CJT car handled by Sebastien Ogier. Past the 20-second delay mark and taking ninth place on this run, Matthew Wilson was dealing with water temperature issues.

This stage's top ten was completed by Conrad Rautenbach, who had to make do with brake fade undermining the performances of his Citroen Junior Team car. The Zimbabwean lost time on nearly every stage. "We've been having brake problems almost the whole day," he explained. "I'm so tired!"

At the conclusion of Rally Argentina's Day One, Dani Sordo holds a 5.1-second lead on Mikko Hirvonen; being the first driver out on the stages tomorrow morning, the honour will see him sweeping the gravel roads.
Hirvonen's starting position is only slightly better, but with an advantage of 11.2 seconds on third-placed Sebastien Loeb, he might be able to protect himself from his title rival's attacks for a while.

It has been a day which saw many changes at the top; the same might be true tomorrow when the action resumes with eight additional gravel stages, to be capped off with a return to the Cordoba Stadium for a second super special event.
Saturday's opening stage begins at 09:38 local time.

Loeb started winning the superspecial stage on Thursday night

Defending World Champion Sebastien Loeb made the perfect start to Rally Argentina, setting the fastest time through Thursday night’s Super Special to move into a slender overnight rally lead.
The Citroen C4 WRC driver, who has won the rally for the last four years, completed the 2.4km test exactly one second quicker than his nearest rival, Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen.
“It was very slippery in there - and very easy to make a mistake,” Loeb said at the stage end. “I’m happy to have got around with no problem. The fact that we’ve got the best time makes it perfect.”

Tens of thousands of rally fans filled the terraces of the Estadio Cordoba to watch the action, creating an electric atmosphere around the short opening stage - a taster before Friday’s first full day of competition in the countryside around Cordoba.

Hirvonen said he had eased off the pace near the stage end. “I slid a little wide on the final bend - the surface was very slippery and I concentrated on making sure I didn't hit any of the concrete barriers,” he said. “It’s a great stage for the people to come and watch, but the real stuff starts tomorrow!”

Loeb’s Citroen Total team-mate Dani Sordo set the third fastest time, with Petter Solberg fourth after a successful head-to-head battle with his brother Henning.