Andros: Muller ahead after first day

Today's first qualifying session was no exception, when he swept to victory in his yellow and white Opel Astra.

The qualifying sessions are important in the Andros.

Consistency is vital, with the total time over three laps of the circuit counts towards the
qualifying score, worth 70% of the total points available.

Emmanuel Collard, Nissan's rookie driver, seemed more at ease on the ice than he had been since Andorra.

He blasted onto the track with a lap of 47.057, a tenth of a second faster than Muller's best time in practice.

His second lap were slightly slower, but his total time of 2:22.628 gave him the provisional lead and a three second advantage over Opel's experienced ice-racer Eric Helary.

However, the final group of four demolished his time.

Muller set three 46-second laps, giving him a total time of 2:19.612.

Pierre Colard continued to show that the light Peugeot 306 is perfectly suited to this track, and came in second, with Tarrès third and Dayraut fourth.

Opel Tigra driver James Ruffier, who finished second at Xonrupt Longemer, was seventh.

'I hoped to do as well here as last weekend,' he said.

'But it will be difficult - this is a very technical circuit. You need the car to be extremely well set up, very even.'

Jean-Noël Lanctuit made a mistake on his second lap, and could not recover, leaving former promotion category winner Claude Millet to set the fastest time in the two-wheel-drive category.

He was followed by Jean-Michel Neyrial, who shares his Nissan Micra.

Qualifying times: