Solberg: Physically I'm not A1.

Subaru's Petter Solberg capitalised on his road position to grab the lead of the Rally Mexico on Friday, despite feeling less than 100 per cent.

The Norwegian, who has been sick for about a week and who didn't eat on Thursday, was fastest through four of the day's seven stages, ending the first leg 4.8 seconds up on Mikko Hirvonen, who lies second for Ford.

"It's good, pretty much like we'd hoped it would be. We have a good start position and that helped us a lot. But I'm not completely happy as I made a lot of little mistakes, especially on SS3 and I know we could have been quicker. Physically, I'm not feeling 100 per cent well and that's making it more difficult for me to get into a good driving rhythm, it was pretty untidy in a few places.

"I'm very happy to be leading the rally tonight though. The car has run perfectly and we're on target for the result we came here for. It's been quite a tough day. The starting position gave me an advantage on the morning loop of stages and we were able to make the most of it, but we struggled to match that pace on the stages in the afternoon. The ground temperature during the last two was more than 40 degrees and even with our hardest tyres we had to work very hard to keep the speed. Tomorrow I think the first loop of stages will be okay, so I'll do all I can to make up more time, but like today I reckon the second time through will be hard work.

"In general though the feeling is good but after what happened in Australia and Japan I'm not making any predictions. I'm taking one day at a time. I'll do my best and we'll have to wait and see what result that gets us."

Subaru's new sporting director, Luis Moya meanwhile was pleased with Solberg's form, especially in light of events on the opening two rounds, something that means 'Hollywood' has yet to score this year.

"Overall it's been a good day," added Moya. "We've used the advantage of our position on the first loop of stages and Petter is leading the rally again. I believe that the WRC season really starts here because this is the rally that shows the pace the cars will have on gravel for the rest of the season. After a poor start to the season, Petter is highly motivated and he's been setting very good times the whole day. We always expected that this would be a close rally and there's every reason to think it'll stay this close until the last stage on Sunday..."