Guy Wilks focused on taking stage wins after crashing out of Scotland lead battle

Wilks went off the road not far from the start of the Errochty stage and is now a distant 23rd overall, more than six minutes off the lead pace in his Peugeot UK 207 S20000.

"It was my fault," said Wilks after the stage. "I thought I had a puncture, it really felt as though we had one. We were running the car quite soft and this must have given me the feeling of a puncture, that was about 500 metres after the start. So, thinking I had that problem I tried to push on and minimise the time loss.

"Unfortunately I made a mistake in a fast left-hander. The car went broadside up the road, then the front caught a ditch, that spun us 180 degrees and we got stuck with the back wheels in the ditch."

Wilks admitted he thought his rally was over in the middle of stage five.

"Five or six Swedish guys arrived and helped us get the car back on the road," he added. "We had to jack the car up then put the spare wheel under the sill - the car was beached and not getting any traction to the wheels. We dropped about six minutes, but we got out of there. We have to thank those guys for their help.

"For me, this event is about times now - I have to push and set the times."

Wilks did just that on last year's Rally of Scotland, when after retiring his Skoda from the lead, he was quicker than anybody through day two.