Dani Sordo has taken a narrow early lead in the Rally New Zealand, while his Citroen team leader Sebastien Loeb has lost over a minute after clipping a bridge.
Loeb had initially been pleased that he was able to stay in touch with the frontrunners despite running first on the road. He was just 3.6 seconds adrift of the top spot after the first two stages, although he fell 15sec away after the long Bull stage.
Then on the Cassidy stage Loeb ran wide, clouted his Citroen against a bridge, and lost further time stop to try and shut the car's damaged door.
"We went off on a narrow bridge. I started to slide before I hit it," Loeb explained. "We could start again, but the problem was the door was open and it would not close."
Petter Solberg (Solberg Citroen) and Sebastien Ogier (Citroen Junior) had run first and second initially, before Sordo jumped up from sixth to the lead with a stunning win on the 32-kilometre Bull stage.
The Spaniard was fastest on SS4 too, giving him a 5s cushion over Ogier, who now has Jari-Matti Latvala in the best of the Fords right on tail.
Ogier is the only Citroen Junior entry this weekend, with New Zealand not part of his regular team-mate Kim Raikkonen's scheduled programme.
Solberg has slipped back to fourth, ahead of Ford team leader Mikko Hirvonen.
Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson was right up with the leaders at first, and was second fastest through SS2, but he then lost time when a side window broke, filling the car with dust. He still holds sixth despite this glitch.
Times to follow