Day 2 am: Chaos in Monte

Second-placed Francois Duval, Subaru's Stephane Sarrazin and Skoda's Armin Schwarz all crashed on stages six and seven, with Duval's co-driver Stephane Prevot and Schwarz taken to hospital for checks on leg and shoulder injuries respectively. Both have since been given a clean bill of health.

The day's first stage was relatively tranquil - Loeb and Duval set the pace and continued to stretch away from the field, while Ford's Toni Gardemeister was the fastest non-Citroen and moved past Petter Solberg into fourth.

Then Duval crashed heavily on SS6, hitting a telegraph pole with the co-driver's side of his Citroen Xsara. The pole came down across the road and blocked the stage, stopping the progress of his team-mate Loeb and the rest of the field. The medical helicopter was despatched to assist Prevot, who was taken to Niece Hospital. It was feared that he had suffered a broken leg, but thankfully it turned out to be no worse than severe bruising.

Loeb admitted that he may change his approach after seeing his team-mate's accident.

"It's a big shame for Francois," said the reigning champion. "Now maybe it is a little more difficult for me. I need to keep my concentration and get to the end."

Schwarz's accident occurred on the following stage, the manufacturer entries running further down the top ten having already safely negotiated SS6 before the stoppage. The German veteran crashed his Skoda near the end of the Pont Des Miolans-Les Sausses 1 section and was taken to hospital with shoulder pain, although happily an examination revealed no serious problems.

His Skoda team-mate Alex Bengue set a remarkable pace and was fastest on both SS6 and 7. Although Loeb was stuck behind Duval's incident on the Toudon-St Antonin stage, the other works cars all made it through unimpeded - and were all beaten by Bengue, whose time of 13m38.8s was 2.5s quicker than Gardemeister in second.

"I stiffened the suspension on the car and altered the differential mapping, which got rid of the understeer," said Bengue. "The car felt very good, the tyre was perfect, and it's a great feeling to have set that time."

Bengue's fastest time on SS7 was a little less hard-won, as Marcus Gronholm, Gardemeister and Solberg were all delayed in the aftermath of Schwarz's incident, while Loeb had yet to be released from SS6. Notional times (equal to Bengue's) were awarded to all those held up.

While Bengue was making his mark on the WRC, the man who beat him to last year's French title was making an early exit from his first event as a factory Subaru driver. Sarrazin clipped a wall 2km from the end of SS6 and broke a steering arm, but will be able to rejoin under SupeRally regulations tomorrow. The sometime Formula 1 driver had been running tenth after losing time with brake problems on leg one and then two errors on today's first stage.

"I did a very small mistake which left a big impression on my rally," said Sarrazin. "I'm very sorry for this to happen on my first rally with the team."

Although Loeb only had the opportunity to complete one of this morning's three stages, he now leads Gronholm's Peugeot 307 by 1m38s. The battle for second will be the highlight of the second half of the rally though, as Ford's new recruit Gardemeister has been catching Gronholm all morning and is now just 12.9s behind. Fourth-placed Solberg is a further 9s back and no longer hampered by the brake problems that plagued his Subaru on leg one.

Gilles Panizzi's fast and unimpeded progress through leg two has brought him to within 3.1s of fifth-placed Markko Martin's Peugeot 307. Didier Auriol's Bozian Peugeot 206 currently lies seventh but will not start this afternoon's stages after suffering an engine failure on the way to the service area. He had been second fastest to Bengue in SS7 despite the engine falling sick during the stage.

Ford driver Roman Kresta and the flying Bengue will therefore move up to seventh and eighth when the action resumes.

Reigning champion Per-Gunnar Andersson maintains a 40s advantage over second-placed Kris Meeke in the JWRC, although the Junior runners all had to be awarded notional times after being trapped behind the accidents on SS6/7.

The delays caused logistical chaos, with many drivers stuck in SS6 after Duval blocked the road. As a result, the rally will run approximately one hour behind schedule for the rest of the day - meaning that stages eight and nine will be completed in the dark. Ice is also likely to be a problem, with temperatures falling fast. Crews are already concerned about the end of SS9, a tight and narrow section that is already wet and likely to freeze before the cars attack it competitively.



Sebastien Loeb (Citroen Xsara), 2h16m35.4s
Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot 307), 2h18m13.7s
Toni Gardemeister (Ford Focus), 2h18m26.6s
Petter Solberg (Subaru Impreza), 2h18m35.8s
Markko Martin (Peugeot 307), 2h19m14.1s
Gilles Panizzi (Mitsubishi Lancer), 2h19m17.2s
Didier Auriol (Peugeot 206), 2h19m55.7s*
Roman Kresta (Ford Focus), 2h20m16.4s
Alexandre Bengue (Skoda Fabia), 2h20m29.5s
Harri Rovanpera (Mitsubishi Lancer), 2h21m39.5s



Antony Warmbold (Ford Focus), 2h26m12.5s
Stephane Sarrazin (Subaru Impreza), 2h29m57.7s*

* Although Auriol and Sarrazin completed the stages or were awarded notional times, they retired from the event before the service area with engine failure and accident damage respectively.