First pics: Burns tests for Peugeot

Testing on Tarmac roads in the mountains about 20km east of Grasse, Burns completed 150km yesterday and will finish the test today. And his first impressions of the world championship-winning French car were positive.

"My first feeling when I got into the car was it feels fine," said the Englishman. "The car probably feels how it looks. Compared to other cars, it feels precise."

The main focus of Wednesday's test was to adjust the seat fittings in the 206 WRC so Burns could find the best driving position, but the Englishman wasn't entirely comfortable and felt he was a little too close to the steering wheel. However, he is slightly shorter than his team mate Marcus Gronholm and Burns expects to find the optimum position soon.

The 206 is a smaller car than the Subaru Impreza he's been driving for the past three years and asked if he thought his new car feels nervous he said: "It's hard to tell on this road with the level of grip we've got here. The whole philosophy of the car is quite different. The size first of all and the transverse engine gives you a different sort of balance."

Burns' other team mate, asphalt specialist Gilles Panizzi, takes over testing duties on Friday as the team prepares for the new season, which gets underway in just over a month's time in Monte Carlo.