Kiwi Hayden Paddon is ninth after the first full day of Rally Germany while his Hyundai teammate Thierry Neuville is third but in front of title rival Sebastien Ogier.
M-Sport Ford driver Ott Tanak leads the rally by 5.7s from Citroen's Andreas Mikkelsen with Belgian Neuville a further 22.5s further adrift.
Paddon found the slippery asphalt surface tricky to contend with and a slow puncture saw him lose more time.
"We entered this rally knowing it was going to be one the hardest of the season for us, but still it was tougher than we probably expected," Paddon said.
"The conditions were really horrible at times, and there was no clear direction on tyre choice. We had a slow puncture in SS4 which lost us a lot of time, but even without that we were struggling for a rhythm.
