"We currently have a cushion of 53.8s and that's a good way to go into the second day..." - Sebastien Loeb.

Sebastien Loeb [Citroen Total WRT]:

"There were a few damp portions and some standing water on Terranova (SS3), but the recent heavy rain didn't have any big effect on the state of the stages. The island's dirt roads are as narrow and slippery as ever, and there was a bit of 'road-sweeping' to do. I am happy with the way our weekend has started. I have an excellent feeling with the car which responds exactly the way I like. Its handling is very precise and effective in all the different types of the conditions. We currently have a cushion of 53.8s over our closest chaser and that's a good way to go into the second day, but it isn't enough to consider that victory is in the bag."

[Speaking in the mid-day service] "Despite the recent rain, the conditions were pretty much what we are accustomed to here in Sardinia. It was very slippery and the stages are as narrow as ever, with just the odd damp portion here and there, and the occasional patch of standing water on SS3. It's been a positive start to the weekend for Citroën, with two cars at the top of the leaderboard. The weekend has only just begun, though, and the second pass through the same stages this afternoon promises to be difficult because of the ruts that have formed and rocks on the road. If we are still leading after the second loop, we will have done a good job."

Daniel Sordo [Citroen Total WRT]:

"I am not all that fond of this rally, so it's nice to be in second place tonight. Seriously, though, I am very happy with the way our day has gone. I suffered a bit from understeer on the first two stages but a change in the settings gave us more confidence for the rest of the day. I very much enjoyed driving my C4. As always in Sardinia, the conditions weren't easy, including some tricky sandy sections and numerous rocks on the road. We came through today's pitfalls but there's still a long way to go before Sunday's finish."

[Speaking in the mid-day service] "I am pleased with my morning. I had a bit of understeer through the first two stages but I managed to cure that to an extent after modifying my set-up before the start of SS3. The conditions weren't easy, with a cocktail of mud, dry portions and some churned up sections that were quite slippery. It's been a positive start, however, and we have succeeded in emerging in second place, behind Seb and ahead of our rivals. We now need to keep up the same pace."

Petter Solberg [Subaru WRT]:

"I'm pleased with third and it's very good for Subaru and for the whole team. This morning I wasn't so comfortable but this afternoon was much better and I was really able to push. The team have been working hard and things are going well. A podium would be very, very good but there's so many things happening on this rally. But at the end of the day it's good and I am happy with third. Tomorrow we will have to push very hard to keep the third place, but I am feeling good at the moment."

[Speaking in the mid-day service] "The stages were quite rutted for me this morning, but I didn't have any real problems in them. They're quite soft though and there's still a bit of water in places so they'll be worse this afternoon. I think they'll be quite badly rutted. There are a lot of rocks in places as well so it's not easy. We've seen some punctures this morning for other crews, so just like before here it's so easy to go off."

Mikko Hirvonen [BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT]:

"It was a strange day. My feeling with the car was good and the handling was fine but when I tried to control my speed it didn't work. I've not had the pace and I don't know why because I've not been over-driving. I want to go and check the data from my car to try to find where I'm losing time. Jari-Matti has a slightly different set-up so I'll check his data too. It was slippery all day but it wasn't just me that was affected by that. It's still possible to get to second, which is the minimum I want from this rally."

[Speaking in the mid-day service] "It was slippery and I couldn't push any harder. At times I was driving from ditch to ditch and in places I eased off because I didn't want to go off the road. I'm not sure if I was losing time because I was cleaning the loose gravel, or because I was breaking the damp surface and the cars behind had better grip. This afternoon the roads will be rutted so I hope to find more grip and speed."

Chris Atkinson [Subaru WRT]:

"Yeah, it's not been a bad day today. It's good to get through the day with no problems though as it's been tough. The guys behind are going well and are fast, so we'll have to pick it up a bit tomorrow to stay in the fight. It's a close battle for third, and there are a few people quite close who will join the fight tomorrow so it'll be hard, that's for sure. I hope we can find a bit more to stay in the top five, but it's not a bad start."

[Speaking in the mid-day service] "OK the conditions are very slippery and it's not been easy this morning, but we're in a good position. The guys behind us are close so we have to keep pushing this afternoon, as there's still a long way to go. We had no problems this morning, everything was okay. The stages are quite soft from the rain this week. They were OK for us this morning as we were third on the road but they'll be quite rutted this afternoon. If we stay here until the end of the day I'll be happy."

Gigi Galli [Stobart VK M-Sport Ford WRT]:

"Today has been a good start to my home event and the feeling with the car is really good as you can see from my fastest time, the only problem was the puncture on stage 2 when we ran wide on a corner and hit some rocks. We were quite lucky because the Pirelli tyres remained strong and did their job and stayed on the rim until the end of the stage. Things are going well, the car feels good and the plan is to push some more tomorrow and see if we can close the gap on the leaders."

[Speaking in the mid-day service] "We had a good start this morning and the feeling on the opening stage was good despite the conditions which were very slippery. We slid wide on a right hand corner about a third of the way into the second stage, hit some rocks, and were very lucky to just come away with a puncture. We decided not to change it and the Pirelli tyres held up remarkably well after driving on the damaged tyre for 20 kilometres. But the car feels good and on the next stage we set a third fastest time."

Jari-Matti Latvala [BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT]:

"I was happy with my speed this afternoon and I need to keep the same pace tomorrow. If I can do that a top five finish is still possible. My start position tomorrow will be good if it stays dry. I had a good pre-event test and both the car and tyres felt perfect. I tried to keep the car straighter and not go sideways and my tyres remained in really good condition as a result."

[Speaking in the mid-day service] "It was my mistake and all I can do is look in the mirror to see the reason why. Maybe my pace notes were too quick, but at a downhill right bend about 18km after the start I hit a soft bank and the tyre came away from the rim and went down straight away. As it was a rear tyre I decided not to stop and change it because I would lose too much time and that proved the right decision. I had made my notes quicker than last year and although it was a fast corner, it was also narrow."

Henning Solberg [Munchi's Ford WRT]:

"We made some changes that seemed to work. Tomorrow I want to maintain the same rhythm."

[Speaking in the mid-day service] "Everything is fine. I'm really enjoying it even if it is very slippery and difficult."

Toni Gardemeister [Suzuki WRT]:

"Today has actually been a very good day for us. To be sixth fastest and sixth overall at the end of the longest stage of the rally this morning was very encouraging. We had a few problems with the downshifts on the gearbox all day, but really nothing major. I just tried to be very smooth and precise on these stages, because if you go off the line then it is easy to have a puncture or hit a rock."

Per-Gunnar Andersson [Suzuki WRT]:

"It's been a steady start to the rally, but these stages are very difficult. Maybe it's because of the changing level of grip, or maybe because the roads are so narrow, but it's been hard to find a good rhythm. It's been very slippery as well - a bit more than I expected. I had a problem with the brakes in the afternoon, but our objective has been to stay out of trouble and so far I think we've managed to achieve that. If we keep the same level of reliability tomorrow, then I'm confident that we can move up the order."

Conrad Rautenbach [PH Sport-Citroen C4 WRC]:

"It's been a bit of a mediocre day, to be honest. The problem with the handbrake this morning was quite strange. Whenever I was going into a tight corner and pulling the handbrake, the car seemed to think it was going to stall and it would dip the clutch. This is not the best when you're coming out of the corner sideways and you need the power to keep the momentum of the car going. It didn't really help my confidence much - particularly as the roads today were quite narrow, without much room to play around with the car.

"This afternoon we were running the 'Conrad anti-stall programme'! The team disconnected the system at service. The upshot of this is that I have to dip the clutch when I pull on the handbrake, which is not ideal but at least I have the confidence to know the car's not going to dip the clutch and remove all drive where I'm least expecting it. Changing the differential set-up will help me get on the power on earlier coming out of corners. Today, I've found the car has been snapping sideways when I get on the power, so I was having to wait before the car was straighter to push the throttle. Obviously this costs time - but even more time when we were in the twistier stages today. Tomorrow, David [Senior - my co-driver] and I know the roads a bit more. I'm looking forward to those, if only I knew what the weather was going to do!"

Federico Villagra [Munchi's Ford WRT]:

[Speaking in the mid-day service] "Difficult conditions, due to the stones, but I like racing here. I have to change the rear suspension."

Matthew Wilson [Stobart VK M-Sport Ford WRT]:

"I just didn't have the feeling this morning and the car is very unpredictable in these conditions. We made some changes in service to the setup of the car which helped massively and my confidence was much higher in the afternoon. It was a really good improvement on the afternoon stages and it all felt a lot better than the morning loop of stages. We had a small issue with the brakes which hopefully we can resolve tonight and the plan is to continue to improve tomorrow and over the rest of the rally."

Notable retirements:

Khalid Al-Qassimi [BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT]: [retired from day 1 in SS4 - lost a wheel - will re-start on day 2 under SupeRally]

"I tried to lift the pace - my confidence was high, I had good grip and things were going well. I entered a blind corner around 10km from the start that was hidden by a bush and saw this huge bedded rock - with an edge sticking out into the road - too late and hit it at speed. I damaged the front left of the car, including mechanical components like the driveshaft and steering arm. It was a bad corner and there was no way we could continue. I'm disappointed because I was gaining pace and time but this is part of the sport."

[Speaking in the mid-day service] "The first stage was wet and I had a couple of spins where the car completely stopped. I've had no major problems though and I'm more confident that I can find pace in this rally now."

Team principals:

Olivier Quesnel [Citroen Total WRT - team principal]:

"Looking at tonight's leaderboard, I am delighted with the work put in by everyone at Citroën Sport. The speed of both our crews confirms what we saw in Jordan, and the work of our technical staff to adapt the C4 to its Pirelli tyres has borne fruit. Sébastien and Daniel took command on SS2 before managing their lead from in front, and their overnight advantage is an encouraging sign for the rest of the weekend. Dani and Marc followed up their recent performance in Jordan with a great day, too. Although our two cars are in the lead, nothing is by any means over yet. There are still two tough days to come.

"I am also pleased with today's runs from the two crews competing in privately-entered Citroën C4 WRCs run by PH Sport with support from Citroën Sport Technologies technicians. Urmo Aava has managed to keep up the momentum of his strong display in Jordan and is 9th tonight, while Conrad Rautenbach - who is 12th - is improving all the time at the wheel of his car."

David Richards [Subaru WRT - managing director]:

"The positive improvements the team has made to the dampers since Jordan are obviously paying off and both Petter and Chris should be very pleased with their performance today."

Malcolm Wilson [Stobart VK M-Sport Ford WRT - team boss]:

"It's been a superb performance by Gigi but he just got caught out on one of the many rocks that line the roads but he has put up a great fight-back and is very much within striking distance of a podium finish. His puncture proved just how strong the Pirelli tyres are as he was able to make it to the end of the stage in one piece. Matthew struggled this morning with his general setup but seems to have made some important changes at midday service and he is now very focused on improving his pace tomorrow."

Paul Wilding [Suzuki WRT - team manager]:

"We're very pleased with the result at the end of the first day. The team has achieved its goal in these unusually rough conditions, and we have been able to learn a lot. We look forward to building on this solid foundation tomorrow, which will be the longest day of the rally and every bit as challenging as the conditions we faced today."