The Citroen team's gamble to send out its drivers early in the running order appears to have paid off at the mid-point of the first day's racing in Rally New Zealand.
Mikko Hirvonen leads teammate and World Rally Championship leader Sebastien Loeb by 3.9 seconds after the first four stages around Te Akau and Raglan.
Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala, who yesterday qualified fastest and chose to race in 13th and last position, sits 16 seconds off the lead in third place with the rest of the field well back.
Latvala elected to be the final driver to race in today's eight stages, with the hope the 12 cars preceding him would sweep the roads clear of gravel. The decision appeared vindicated after the Finn won this morning's first stage, but since then it's been all Citroen.
Hirvonen and Loeb took the opposite strategy to Latvala, selecting first and third position respectively, gambling on the prospects of rain that would see the roads deteriorate further with every driver.
And those tactics worked out as early as the second stage when the dampness and mud arrived, allowing Hirvonen to surge into the lead with Latvala falling into third behind Loeb.
The eight-time world champion Loeb took the third stage to reduce the deficit to his Citroen teammate, and Loeb repeated the dose on the fourth stage to pull within four seconds of Hirvonen.
Behind the front three, Sport Ford duo Evgeny Novikov and Ott Tanak are in fourth and fifth after taking advantage of a spin on stage three by Qatar Citroen's Thierry Neuville.
Latvala's teammate Petter Solberg was left to rue a decision to take hard tyres after struggling for pace all morning, sitting a minute and a half down in seventh place ahead of this afternoon's final four stages to complete the first day's racing.
