Andros: Dayraut takes qualifying win

The third qualifying round took on a new importance after a chaotic final group in the second qualifying session.

After Opel's Yvan Muller totally dominated the first session, and broke the lap record in the first two laps of the second, he appeared to be well on the way to winning the session, and taking overall victory in qualifying.

Skies were overcast, with rain starting halfway through the session.

The ice was generally good, although deep gutter were beginning to appear in some of the hairpins. However, Marcel Tarrès, on the ice at the same time, spun and blocked the track.

Eric Helary's Opel Astra, Jean-Pierre Malcher's Nissan Micra and Muller all came to a halt behind him.

The session was restarted, but this time it was Helary who went off and caused a second red-flag.

By now Muller had run out of fuel, and the car was topped up.

This time Muller and Malcher managed to complete their three laps, but a furious Muller was off his best performance, hitting the walls and finishing second behind his team-mate Jean-Philippe Dayraut.

Helary had his second lucky escape of the weekend when, after a poor first lap, the session was red-flagged after Emmanuel Collard planted his Micra in the wall and both Helary and Jean-Luc Pailler narrowly avoided a collision.

Helary recovered after the restart to take the provisional lead with three 58-second laps.

Tarrès was in the next group. The Citroen Xsara did two excellent 57-second laps.

On his third time round the 850m circuit, he was slightly wide on the final corner. He pressed on, spinning just before the start/finish line.

He got going, but ended up with a total time of 3:10.290, well off the pace.

Muller, his tyres worn after the extra laps in the second session, was in the final group.

On his first lap he hit the wall in the top hairpin. He managed to rejoin, but his first lap was a slow 1:08.

He recovered to set the fastest lap of the weekend, 56.922, but although his third lap was also of 57 seconds, he could not hope to set a competitive time, coming in 14th.

Jean-Philippe Dayraut, in the same group, avoided the errors made by his main rivals and set three consistent 57-second laps, to win the session with a total time of 2:51.680, and take his first overall qualifying victory, ahead of his Opel team-mates Muller and Helary.

The battle for the Promotion crown continued between Guyhlem Dussaucy's Nissan Micra and Christophe Balas' much larger Subaru Forester.

The longer Forester clipped the wall on the first lap, and finished the session with smoke coming from the rear, with victory going to Dussaucy.

Dussaucy leads the Promotion category after qualifying, with Balas close behind.