Six-time world champion Loeb, who won the past three rounds of the championship, approached a right-hand corner too fast on the 22.2km stage in Northland province and slammed sideways into a bridge abutment.

He was saved by a barrier from rolling down a steep embankment onto railway tracks and, in restarting his engine, started a small scrub fire.

Solberg, driving a privateer Citroen, ended the day 1.4 seconds ahead of Finland's Jari-Matti Latvala, in a Ford, while Loeb's Citroen teammate Sebastien Ogier was third.

Loeb began the fourth stage 15.6 seconds behind Spain's Dani Sordo and, after his encounter with the railway bridge at Taipuha, dropped 1 minute, 40.3 seconds from the lead.

He drove the last five stages of the day with the driver's door of his Citroen fixed shut, forced to enter and exit through the window.

“I was a little bit too fast in the right-hander with a very narrow bridge at the exit,” Loeb said.

“I lost the rear at the entry in the gravel and I couldn't catch the car back and make it straight before the bridge.” Loeb made up more than 20 seconds by the last special stage of the day, around the Auckland Domain in the heart of New Zealand's largest city.

“I'm driving flat out since I went off,” he said. “I have no other choice. Big risks, but I have to do it.” Solberg was one of four drivers to lead the rally during the opening day. He won the first stage through the Waipu Gorge when Loeb, as championship leader, started first and was forced to sweep the deeply-graveled roads for later drivers.

Loeb's Citroen teammate Ogier took over the lead after the second stage and Sordo, also driving a Citroen led by 4.6 seconds after the third stage.

Loeb was then in touch with the lead but his spectacular crash on the fourth stage all but cost him any chance of winning the New Zealand rally, possibly being contested for the last time as a WRC event. The Frenchman is the defending champion.

After the fifth stage, stage-winner Ogier was in front again by 1.6 seconds from Latvala, and after the sixth Ogier's lead was 3.6 seconds.

Loeb won the seventh stage by 6.6 seconds from Solberg and the Norwegian was fastest on the eighth stage to establish a 1.5 second overall lead, entering the last stage of the day. The last, 1.5km special stage, also fell to Loeb while Solberg retained his overall lead.