Burns: Pit board shunt was my fault

Burns crashed in SS15 as he tried to close down leader Colin McRae and second-placed Carlos Sainz. Shortly before the shunt, team personnel were clearly visible on in-car footage as Prodrive's Martin Rowe held out a timing board designed to inform Burns of his progress.

Former British champion Rowe and another Prodrive team member Kevin Gormley had to push Burns back onto the road after he slid down a bank.

The Subaru ace initially denied that the boards had caused his accident, but he told Autosport.com this afternoon that they had been a factor.

"I still have to accept responsibility because I was driving," he said, "but as a team, we should have sat down and discussed exactly where the board was going to be. I wasn't expecting it and yes, it did distract me. The accident was my fault, but as a team some of what we did was half-hearted and we need to address that."

Subaru has struggled to keep pace with Ford's tactical gameplans over the last few events, and Burns was particularly critical of decisions made in Cyprus.

"We should have seen on the first day what would happen by the final morning," he said, "and that didn't happen. I'm involved in all of this, but I think we could have done better."

Burns has also moved to quell the much-hyped war of words between him and Colin McRae.

"Colin drove very well in Greece," said Burns, "and at the service area after my accident I went up to him and congratulated him. I thought even then that he'd win, and I expected him to come out of the last stage fight with Carlos still in front."

The Safari Rally is the next round of the World Rally Championship, and Burns is hopeful that good runs there and in Finland will allow him to boost his flagging title hopes.

"I've got a good record on the Safari, so I'm looking forward to it," he said. "In Finland we all expect Tommi (Makinen), Marcus (Gronholm) and Harri (Rovanpera) to fight for the win, but I've shown in recent years that I can be competitive there too."