Rich vegetation, majestic mountains, the yellow Sun, the blue Black Sea looked in the bright morning of Saturday as if they had come from a travel agency postcard. But behind all that was hidden one of the most difficult rally routes in the country. Twisty roads of the mountain "Markoth" stage, fast and straight, but very treacherous "Gaiduk" and long and exhausting "Semigorje" - that is the competition itinerary for today. Twice will racing cars drive under the fascinating scarlet arch of three boughs, and here you can read about what happened on the first pass.

Alexander Zheludov started "Novorossiysk Rally of Russia 2009" exactly from the same position where he left it last year - in the lead. It came as no surprise, thanks to Alexander's rich experience on these mountain roads and a comparative lack of equal competition: his only real rivals were busy getting used to the new factors: Sergey Uspenskiy to the new Impreza from under Patrik Flodin and Marco Tempestini to the unfamiliar surface and the character of roads. But as soon as they both had got acquainted with the respective features, they managed to provide a fierce opposition to Zheludov. Tempestini won the second stage and retook (for a while) the lead from the reigning Russian champion, and Uspenskiy, setting 3^rd best time, also got closer to his compatriot. Unfortunately, this charge from the URT team leader ended on SS3 when the engine of his car broke down. Tempestini meanwhile took it easy in the difficult conditions (he had strange smoke inside the cockpit) and, losing 18.4 seconds to Zheludov, let the latter ahead in the overall standings. Now the pair, being separated by only 11.6 seconds, is head and shoulders ahead of all other competitors, and the fight for the lead seems to have turned into a two-way battle.

However it doesn't mean that there're no other interesting events happening on the route. For example, 3rd spot on the provisional podium is now closely fought between at least five drivers. Holding the position at the moment Vadim Makarov impressed most of all. The newly-crowned European autocross champion took it steadily on the first speed test, but already on the next one he showed 2^nd best result ahead of both Uspenskiy and Zheludov, and finished 3^rd on the loop's final stage. His life won't be made easy on the second run through the stages, as Alexander Nebogatikov and Evgeniy Aksakov, coming to grips with their vehicles, will try to push the Ural driver. Interestingly that after the penultimate stage it was one of the Russian best driving coaches Gennadiy Broslavskiy who held the top position among "best of the rest". Unfortunately, on SS3 the leader of "Uspenskiy's Acedemy of Speed" punctured a front tyre and fell to 8^th place, however still within a touch of the drivers ahead.

It was predictably three-times Russian champion in front-wheel drive categories Sergey Naryshkin who took the lead in A6 after two stages. But hitting a rock on SS3 prevented him from further extending his lead, which now went to Dmitriy Voronov. In Group A7, despite it's represented by only two crews, the fight is no less interesting. After the yesterday's roll Mikhail Milov was cautious on the first two stages, but then began his attack and just in one stage ate all Andrey Petukhov's half-minute advantage and took the lead. However it's the other "hero" of the shakedown, Igor Storchak, who is putting in the best performance among the FWD crews so far. After the first loop of stages he has a 2-minutes lead in the N3 category, and a 40-seconds overall advantage.

The crews which are still in the fight (you can read about the retirements in our flash news section) will go to the second section after the service and renorming.

Top 10 after SS3:*

1. A.Zheludov

2. M.Tempestini +11.9

3. V.Makarov +1:26.7

4. A.Nebogatikov +1:38.0

5. E.Aksakov +1:45.9

6. V.Kilunin +2:00.1

7. V.Vorkachev +2:04.8

8. G.Broslavskiy +2:33.2

9. I.Storchak +3:09.8 (1st in FWD)

10. D.Voronov +3:51.2

*all results are provisional until declared officially by the stewards meeting.