Rain moved into the fourth leg as Solberg and map reader Elliott Edmondson, who started in the ninth car on the road, were just about to set off.

That meant he lost a lot of time to the lead and he was a full 43.9 seconds behind stage winner Elfyn Evans, who escaped the rain.

- When the road is clean, the car is quite okay and then I drive quite fast.

But when it gets muddy and slippery, the car is very difficult to drive, so we simply take it easy, Solberg told SVT at the lunch service.

- That the rain came just as we stood on the starting line was also unlucky, of course, but it is what it is.

Solberg suffered gearbox problems

During the afternoon, the Swede's Hyundai suffered from gearbox problems.

On the last stretch, Solberg had to fight hard to get the gears in and was forced to slow down at each gear.

Solberg is seventh and is just over two minutes behind leading team-mate Thierry Neuville, Belgium.

Neuville is chased by Ott Tänak, 2.5 seconds behind, and Elfyn Evans, 13.7 seconds behind after receiving a ten-second time penalty, ahead of Saturday.