The current leader in the World Rally Championship Marcus Grönholm (Ford) is out of the Japan Rally. He crashed out on the 4th special stage, damaging his car to the point where he could not continue.
Grönholm, who was leading at the time, skidded off the gravel road and the Ford rolled into a tree, cracking the safety roll-cage in the roof.
The crash is an obvious setback to his hopes of taking this year's WRC title in his farewell season. Going into this rally he held a slender four-point lead over reigning World Champion Sebastien Loeb of France (Peugeot).
After the ten stages of the first day, the rally leader is Grönholm's Ford Team-mate Mikko Hirvonen, who holds a 10.3 second advantage over Loeb. The leader in the morning Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) has slipped to 3rd, some three seconds behind Loeb.
The rally finishes on Sunday.
