Ford's Mikko Hirvonen took the early lead in Wales Rally GB, the season-ending British round of the championship, on Friday with Citroen's Sebastien Loeb keeping title rival Marcus Gronholm just behind him.

Frenchman Loeb, needing only to finish in the top five to secure his fourth championship in a row, was 15.4 seconds behind Hirvonen after the opening 17.4km Port Talbot 1 and 25.7km Resolfen 1 stages in south Wales.

Finland's double world champion Gronholm, Hirvonen's team mate and compatriot who is retiring after Sunday's finish, was in third place and just 1.4 adrift of Loeb. Hirvonen won the first two stages, with Gronholm 5.5 seconds adrift of Loeb after the opener but fighting back through Resolfen.

Stobart Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala was running in fourth place, ahead of Subaru's Norwegian Petter Solberg - winner four times in Britain in the last five years.

Loeb leads Gronholm by six points in the standings and has won eight rallies this season to the Finn's five.

Ford have already made sure of their second successive manufacturers' title.

"It will be a bit stupid in my situation to take lots of risks to try and win here," Loeb, poised to equal retired Finn Tommi Makinen's record of four titles in a row, had told a news conference in Cardiff yesterday. "I've not started a rally in this position before - normally when I start I want to go as fast as possible and go for the victory."

The Frenchman missed last year's British round, won by Gronholm, after breaking his arm falling off a mountain bike in a training accident.

In today's first leg the drivers complete six timed stages, including one in full darkness, totalling 140.8 km mostly through the forests of the Vale of Neath.