Panizzi, Solberg explain shunts

Initially it seemed the Frenchman may have broken his left arm, but after a visit to the hospital he emerged with nothing worse than heavy bruising.

"I cannot remember exactly how it all happened but it was raining incredibly heavily in the stage," he said. "I was on the brakes and maybe we went a little too close to the side of the road and onto some wet grass.

"At that point we became passengers; the car was uncontrollable on such a surface. We hit a small tree which then spun us 200/300 metres downhill through a field until we hit another tree and stopped. The impact was very heavy on my side, but the car stood up well. The seat didn't move and we were able to walk away from it just sore and bruised."

While Panizzi was being checked in hospital, world champion Petter Solberg was another to fall foul of the miserable conditions. Like Panizzi before him, his accident was big enough for organisers to cancel the stage. Solberg wasn't injured but his co-driver Phil Mills was taken to hospital for precautionary checks.

"Just after the start of SS12, we went over a crest and the car went a little off the road and into a huge concrete block," said the Subaru driver. "We then rolled a number of times and went into more concrete. It was a big shock, but the main thing is that Phil seems to be okay - we can always build another car.

"At the moment, I'm not feeling good, and, for sure, the accident wasn't fun, but I'm not too stressed."