/world sport
OBIHIRO, Japan -- Mikko Hirvonen snatched the first day lead in the Rally of Japan by winning the sixth and seventh stages after championship leader Marcus Gronholm was forced to retire with mechanical trouble after winning stage two.
Hirvonen was 6.2 seconds adrift until he won stages six and seven.
Finn Hirvonen ended the day on 1:00:30.8, with defending world champion Sebastien Loeb of France next with a time of 1:00:41.1.
Hirvonen, in a Ford Focus, was 6.2 seconds adrift of compatriot and team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala after the fifth stage, but went ahead by winning the 13.94-kilometer sixth stage in 8:09.0.
Hirvonen then took the seventh stage and held on to his advantage until the end of the day.
Loeb, chasing a third straight win in his Citroen, took the third and ninth stages to finish 3.4 seconds ahead of Latvala, the winner of the first and fifth stages.
Dani Sordo of Spain, victorious on stages four and eight, was fourth overall in 1:01:11.4 in a Citroen.
The last stage was won by Xevi Pons of Spain in a Subaru for seventh place overall in 1:02:33.4. E-mail to a friend 
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