Latvala set very best time and extended his lead to 16 seconds by Loeb who is second. Loeb lost couple of seconds at the end of stage 5 as he explains that he is destroyed tyres. He said: “I felt I destroyed completely the front tyres”.
Sebastien Ogier suffer in stage 5 with a rear puncture and lost a lot of time. Ogier had a puncture at about 9 km from the start of all 35 km stage. He stopped and change the damages wheel.
The big pretender for the world champion title Mikko Hirvonen is third but far at over 1-Minute delay.
Petter Solberg is out of the rally in day 1 after a accident in a heavy dust. He explains: “It was unbelievable dusty, I’ve never experienced anything like it. You could not see and it got worse and worse for everybody behind. I couldn’t see two centimetres away. Ken Block hit the same thing, so did Tanak. I’m very disappointed because all of my sponsors are here this weekend.”
Solberg praised a group of spectators who positioned a rock in front of the culvert to prevent other drivers from hitting it.
1. Latvala 1:30:35.8
2. Loeb +16.0
3. Hirvonen +1:00.2
4. Sordo +1:31.9
5. Ogier +1:51.9
6. Meeke +2:19.6
 

Mikko Hirvonen almost lost the championship battle with Sebastien Loeb after his result from stage 2. Mikko lost 21 seconds and is forth at +35.3 seconds.
After a strong attack Sebastien Ogier moved to third position. Latvala keeps the second place for now.

1. Loeb 39:09.3
2. Latvala +8.9
3. Ogier +16.8
4. Hirvonen +35.3
5. Sordo +52.1
6. Ostberg +1:08.0

The frenchman was first starting in stage 1 and finished first. Immediately after him started Mikko Hirvonen who is equal with Loeb in the championship points but lost 15.4 seconds mainly but the dust of Sebastien Loeb. Mikko said after the final of the stage. “There was lots of dust. We went off in one corner, it was a double right hander. I couldn't see anything in the dust. Luckily we didn't damage anything on the car.”
The dust cause many problems to the teams as Dani Sordo said: “All the time I was in the dust, I didn’t see anything. It was impossible.” He also said that had to lift off the throttle due to the dust clouds.
Results after SS 1:
1. Loeb 15:18.7
2. Latvala +7.4
3. Hirvonen +15.4
4. Ogier +18.0
5. Meeke +35.7
6. Hanninen +37.2
7. Ostberg +41.8
8. Sordo +43.2
 

WRC Rally Spain to start tomorrow with all 18 special stages. The stages are located South-West of Barcelona. The longest stage is El Priorat 1 and 2 in Day 2 is 45.97 km.
The fastest man on today’s shakedown was Petter Solberg.
The results from today:
1. P. SOLBERG. Citroen DS3 WRC. 2:08.5
2. VILLAGRA. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 2:08.7
3. OGIER. Citroen DS3 WRC. 2:08.9
3. LATVALA. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 2:08.9
3. H. SOLBERG. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 2:08.9
6. HIRVONEN. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 2:09.0
7. LOEB. Citroen DS3 WRC. 2:09.1
7. OSTBERG. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 2:09.1
9. SORDO. MINI John Cooper Works WRC. 2:09.4
10. MEEKE. MINI John Cooper Works WRC. 2:10.7
The big question for the championship title pretenders Mikko Hirvonen and Sebastien Loeb remained sixth and seven.