Wilson hugely frustrated to retire

The 23-year-old Cumbrian retired close to the finish of the first stage on the Sapporo-based event this morning. His Ford Focus RS WRC was completely undamaged in the incident and he will return under superally regulations tomorrow.

"It's sickening," he said. "We started to spin in a slow corner close to the end of the stage and as the back came around, the front of the car just nosed off the inside of the corner and dropped down into a ditch. I stuck it in reverse, but we were going nowhere.

"You just sit there looking at the car, then at the road and think: 'Surely, surely we can get it back on the road.' But we couldn't. We'd have needed a few people to lift the back of the car around, but there was nobody around.

"If this had been Finland, 20 or 30 people would have been there and we'd have been back on the road in under a minute. It's a real shame."

Having finished fourth on Rally Japan in 2007, Wilson had high hopes of equalling or beating that result, but his exit from the Kamuycep stage has ended that possibility.