Cronin crashes out of leg one

The Cork driver's Abarth Grande Punto went off the road on the sixth stage of the event. The team is currently evaluating the damage to the car before deciding whether he will restart tomorrow.

A spokesman from the team said: "Keith has gone off the road nine kilometres from the start of the stage. At the moment we don't know too much more. It's possible he might have rolled, or hit a rock. We're going to recover the car and have a look."

Cronin has suffered a forgettable event so far, after two punctures and a 40-minute trip to a ditch this morning ruined his hopes of a strong overall result.

"It's not really my rally," said Cronin this morning. "It's been tough. When I went into the ditch, there were no spectators around, we had to run down the road to try and get a few. It took a long time."

Running further back on the road, Cronin was delayed following a slower car on stage five, before his accident on the Drummond Hill test.