McRae vows to be fit for Spain

McRae suffered bruised ribs and a badly broken and gashed little finger on his left hand after he crashed into a tree on the penultimate stage of the rally. After being airlifted to hospital to undergo minor surgery, stitching up torn tendons and closing the wounds on his finger, McRae was already looking to Rally Catalunya and Ford's chances there.

"We were running better today [Sunday] than we expected," he said. "The car/tyre package was working well and I think we have made big progress for the Catalunya rally."

McRae slid off the road and into a tree after hitting some mud in a third-gear left-right combination of bends about five kilometres into SS15.

"I can't remember a lot about the accident," said McRae. "We have to use every centimetre of road on this surface and when something goes wrong there's no room for error. It was muddy under the trees and once the car started to slide, I knew it wasn't coming back onto the road. It hit a tree just in front of my door and the impact pushed in the roof and the side of the car next to the dashboard.

"My finger was stuck between the dash and the steering wheel. I managed to free my hand but the side of the car was pushed against my leg and it took me a while to get out because I wasn't sure if my leg was broken. It split the small finger wide open, burst the tendons and has broken the bones as well. It's not so good."

For the full story of exactly what happened, and how McRae plans to regain his fitness, see this week's AUTOSPORT magazine.