Citroen juggernaut stutters as Puras retires

"It's time to go home," he said. "The car was perfect but it suddenly stopped. It was very hard for us. We've missed a very good chance of victory and it is not enough to know that we dominated the event from the very first stage."

Catalunya has never been a kind event to the man from Santander. In seven attempts at the WRC round he's finished only twice. Among his retirements he's been sidelined on the run out to the first stage and also had his Xsara F2 kit-car fail to restart when leading in 1999.

Puras was on his way to the third service halt of the leg when he radioed in to base complaining of fuel pressure problems. At the time, Citroen engine man Claude Guillois feared it was a terminal problem and soon his judgement was proved right.

Puras had led for most of the rally and was looking good for at least a podium place on the French team's first foray into the championship with a World Rally Car.

The 38-year-old had led after every stage of the rally until relinquishing the top spot to his team mate Philippe Bugalski on the third stage of leg two, SS9, the longest of the event.

To add to his misery he is still not sure if FIA plans to do anything more about pre-rally allegations that he had illegal pace notes before the recce. Co-driver Marc Marti persuaded the stewards that the notes were simply old ones re-written in reverse direction and they allowed the pair to start the event.

However FIA Rallies Commission President Shekhar Mehta said today, "We're still having a long, hard look at the situation."

Citroen's hopes are now with Philippe Bugalski. The Frenchman, who won this event in 1999 in a Formula 2 Xsara, now has a 27.7-second lead over compatriot Didier Auriol in the Peugeot with only Sunday's final six stages to run.