End of day two: Driver quotes/team news

Leading into the opening stage of the day forced Tommi Makinen to drive on 'dirty' roads which naturally cleaned up for later runners and this allowed his rivals to close the gap.

By Friday evening, he had been able to increase his lead thanks to choosing tyres with fewer studs than his rivals but that advantage was quickly lost this morning.

'The stage was rough with a lot of gravel,' he said. 'The following cars will have had a much better surface.'

Even now, however, Makinen was not prepared to take unnecessary risks that might rob him of victory.

Team-mate Freddy Loix has refined his pace notes and recorded faster times as a result.

'My notes are much better now and I have more confidence in them. I can see now where I can go faster and it's important to get more good times like this.'

Subaru

Like the Peugeot team, Subaru also suffered an embarrassing retirement at the start of today when the second placed Impreza of Richard Burns also failed to restart from parc ferme. This was a repeat of the dramas that had afflicted Gilles Panizzi's private Subaru at the same place a year ago.

Burns flooded the engine by turning on both fuel pumps together rather than one at a time. The English driver tried to rectify his mistake but eventually ran out of time.

'We tried everything but nothing worked. It was especially frustrating after having such a good day yesterday,' said Burns.

'Before the rally I'd have been happy with just a few points but I had begun to believe that we could actually win. The worst result now would be for Tommi [Makinen] to win as I have always believed that he is my strongest rival this year.'

Juha Kankkunen suffered on SS8 by not getting enough heat into his tyres before he hit the ice but his mind is on other things.

'Of course I'm concerned that it might be my car that doesn't start in the morning but I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping all is OK,' he said.

Peugeot

The Peugeot Sport team suffered a complete wipe-out when all three cars failed to restart from parc ferme on Friday morning.

The cars of Gilles Panizzi and Francois Delecour refused to start their engines while the engine in the third 206WRC of Marcus Gronholm did start but stopped shortly afterwards.

Team director Corrado Provera said: 'We have tested the cars in temperatures down to -14 degrees in Sweden and also in a 'cold chamber' in France. We can't yet understand why the problem should occur at much higher temperatures.'

Although academic now, Delecour had received a one minute penalty for checking early out of last night's final service and he had dropped from fifth place after SS5 to an overnight ninth.

Of the dramas he added: 'Maybe this is not so bad for Peugeot in some ways. The French press expected us to win this event easily but this is not the 1980s and this is not the 205T16.'

Ford

Gearbox problems affected Colin McRae's early pace today as the Scot found it harder to select gears as he should.

'I think we might have been able to get into third place if it hadn't been for the problems,' he said.

'It wouldn't select cleanly and sometimes jumped out of gear.'

The team changed the gearbox at service after SS7 and refitted the unit that had been
swapped at last night's final service.

While most drivers selected a dry weather tyre for the long stage (SS8), McRae opted for an intermediate pattern despite suggesting before the stage that dry tyres would be the
best option but complained later: 'The car did not perform. We are having a problem on every stage but they're all unrelated.'

On SS8 his troubles came with a vibration from the anti-deflation mousse in his tyres.

Team-mate Carlos Sainz continues to learn about the Ford Racing Focus (the correct
name for this year's new homologation) and apart from some brake fade was happy with his performance over the early stages today.

SEAT

Didier Auriol was slowed on the final two stages of last night when his engine twice cut out after he spun at corners.

The problem was then compounded when he managed to hit a cockpit switch that locked the differentials in a setting that made the Cordoba almost impossible to drive.

Today he again suffered with transmission problems when the rear differential pressure fluctuated constantly and he explained: 'We had to slow down because I felt the car was trying to spin every time I braked for a corner.'

The team changed the gearbox prior to the longest stage of the event but the Frenchman was not happy.

'I'm just not on the pace,' he reflected. 'We've only had two clear stages all rally and so we're using the event as a test. Toni's pace is encouraging and shows what is possible.'

Toni Gardemeister was concerned that he was losing grip from his tyres on SS7 and took it cautiously on the downhill section near the finish, only to discover at the end that his tyres were still in perfect condition.

On the long stage he lost his rear brakes after hitting both sides of the car.

'I thought it was going to be terrible,' he admitted, 'but once I realised I could use the handbrake and the foot brake together then it was actually quite good!'

Skoda

Driving gently through a special stage in convoy shouldn't be cause for concern but Skoda driver Armin Schwarz eventually arrived at service after the cancelled SS6 needing repairs to his rear suspension after being hit by a following car.

The ironic twist to the story was that the following car was that of Schwarz's team-mate, Luis Climent.

On SS8 Schwarz suffered a repeat of the turbo pipe problems that afflicted his car on SS1 and SS2 while Climent found that his engine would not rev as high as it should and he was having to change gear at 5800rpm instead of 6500rpm.

Other teams Swiss Toyota driver Olivier Burri continues to lead the Prince Albert
Challenge for amateur crews and is currently aiming to complete the rally with some FIA World Championship points to his credit as well.

Bruno Thiry's early form appears to have stabilised near the foot of the top 10 after choosing too hard a tyre compound for the longest stage.

'We changed the tyres before the long stage but we should not have done so,' he said.

'The compound was much too hard.'

Meanwhile the FIA Production Cup series is currently being led by the Mitsubishi of Germany's Uwe Nittel, comfortably clear of the battle for second place.