Ford drivers rue their mistakes

Gronholm was running third when he rolled on Friday afternoon, while Hirvonen crashed out of a close second place on the first stage of leg two. Both rejoined under SupeRally regulations, but their eventual eighth and 15th positions were not representative of the Ford team's pace.

"The car has shown good reliability and the team is happy with that," said Gronholm, who won the previous two WRC rounds. "But as for the drivers... both of us made a mistake and that was not good for the championship.

"From now on, we have to do better."

"I should have been on the podium in Sweden, and now here again but for my own mistake, so I have to stop doing mistakes and then we will be okay I think," said Hirvonen. "The pace is good so I'm really confident for the future.

"I need to avoid small mistakes but I will continue to go flat out."

Gronholm managed to score one drivers' championship point and three manufacturers' points for Ford, but this was not sufficient to stop Sebastien Loeb and Kronos Citroen moving ahead in the standings.

"When we got back to the service the car was quite easy to repair and we made a calculation that maybe it was possible to take manufacturer points," said Gronholm. "The car seems to be good - when we push we can do the same times as Petter (Solberg) and Loeb. But it's not a good result."

Stobart Ford driver Matthew Wilson unfortunately emulated his works counterparts by crashing on Saturday morning while running a superb sixth. He rejoined under SupeRally rules but struggled with engine problems throughout the final leg and could only recover to 17th.

"I think I could have finished in the top five, and that's really kicking in now," said Wilson. "But it was good to get the experience. We had some problems with the engine today, but at least on the first day we showed a bit of what we can do."