 World champion Loeb won five of Friday's six stages
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Sebastien Loeb has a 44-second lead after a weather-affected opening day at Rally Ireland, the first event of this year's World Rally Championship (WRC).
Five-time world champion Loeb produced a cautious start but he took control after early leader Jari-Matti Latvala crashed out on stage two.
Loeb leads Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo with their Ford rival Mikko Hirvonen a further 20 seconds back in third.
Awful weather forced the cancellation of Friday's two final stages.
Those two stages were scheduled to take place in county Tyrone and Fermanagh but organisers were left with little option after the elements intervened.
Loeb, seeking his sixth successive world title, described the conditions as "undriveable" but he still managed to win five of the six stages after Latvala had dominated the opening stage.
"At 80kmh we were aquaplaning and as it was dark we couldn't see where all the water was lying," said Loeb.
"The roads are only the width of the car."
 Dani Sordo is in second place after the opening day in Ireland
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Ford driver Latvala won the first stage by almost 18 seconds but he exited on stage two after suffering two punctures and a broken drive shaft.
Latvala's exit left Estonia's Urmo Aava 22 seconds clear of Loeb after stage two but the defending champion was 31 second ahead by the end of stage four.
Aava dropped to fifth, a minute behind Loeb, after stage five and the Estonian lost five more minutes on the final stage of the day, to slip to 11th.
Henning Solberg is three minutes and nine seconds behind Loeb in fourth while Australian Chris Atkinson is nearly five minutes off the pace in seventh.
Matthew Wilson is the leading Britain in eighth while Irish drivers Gareth McHale and Eamonn Boland complete the top 10.
Ireland's former world production champion Niall McShea had produced a superb opening stage to lie third but engine trouble saw him exiting after stage while in fifth place.
Loeb had produced a hesitant opening stage in the slippery conditions as he trailed Latvala by 42 seconds but the Frenchman was fastest during the remaining five stages.
Rally Ireland standings after day one:
1 S Loeb (Fra) Citroen 1hr 09mins 35.2
2 D Sordo (Spn) Citroen +00:44.4
3 M Hirvonen (Fin) Ford 01:04.8
4 H Solberg (Nor) Ford 03:09.4
5 C Rautenback (Zim) Citroen 04:18.3
6 S Ogier (Fra) Citroen 04:23.2
7 C Atkinson (Aus) Citroen 04:51.2
8 M Wilson (GB) Ford 04:56.0
9 G McHale (Irl) Ford 05:05.1
10 E Boland (Irl) Subaru 05:54.5
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