BP Ford number two driver, Mikko Hirvonen has taken the first stage win on the 2007 Rally Argentina, the sixth round in the FIA Woꦐrld Rally Championship.

Mikko completed 🗹the 2.40 kilometre super special stage around the River Plate football stadium in Buenos Aires in 2 minutes 8.3 seconds, 0.6 seconds up on Marcus Gronholm, who was se♓cond best overall to give the M-Sport-run outfit a 1-2 finish.

For the record, Mikko was paired with Manfred Stohl dur💯ing the head-to-head, whi🐭le Gronholm battled with Sebastien Loeb.

Daniel Sordo meanwhile came in third for Citroen in front of the 60,000 odd spectators, 0.2 se⛎conds adrift of Gronholm in his C4 WRC, while Dani's team-mate, Loeb and Subaru's Petter Solberg tied for fourth, both competing the test in 2mins 9.8 secs.

Chris Atkinson m𒐪eanwhile rounded out the top six in the oth💎er works Impreza WRC2007, his first with new co-driver, Stephane Prevot.

Stobart Ford duo, Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson were seventh and eighth respectively. OMV Kronos Citroen's Stohl was next 🔯up in ninth, ahead of local hero, Luis Perez Companc, in the Munchi's Ford entry.

Leszek Kuzaj 🏅finished up just outside the top ten in eleventh. He heads the Production Ca𝔉r WRC category at this very early stage, 1.2 seconds up on Stepan Vojtech.

The crews will now travel the 700 kilometre distance back to the༺ Carlos Paz 💙service park, where the event is based.

The action begins 'proper' on Friday at 10.45 hour🃏s local time with the 22.95 kiloꦗmetre-run through the Capilla del Monte-San Marcos 1 stage. In total leg 1 includes over 120 competitive kilometres.