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Solberg leads Rally of Mexico

Leon - Norway's Petter Solberg led the Rally of Mexico on Friday after winning the first three of four stages in his Citroen C4.

Solberg, who won in Mexico in 2005, is 17.1sec ahead of second-placed Sebastien Ogier from the Citroen Junior Team and 26.1sec in front of France's six-time world champion Sebastien Loeb in third position.

"It's very good and a lot of fun to have started like this," said Solberg. "Okay, the road is cleaning, but on some of the stages you don't gain that much. Either way it's not bad, we will see this afternoon what we do. For the moment I'm feeling very comfortable and the car works well."

Finland's Mikko Hirvonen, the winner of last month's Rally of Sweden, is back in sixth place and 55.2sec off the lead.

"My driving is okay but there's so much loose gravel on the road I can't do anything," Hirvonen said.

"I tried to push harder on the second stage but had a massive moment - I was very lucky. There's nothing more I can do. Being first on the road is really, really bad."

Fellow Finn and former Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen, however, suffered another torrid time after his disappointing 28th-placed finish in Sweden when he retired on the second stage after suffering technical problems in his Citroen.

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