Road section failure costs Wilson

The Stobart VK Ford driver had no indication of the failure until the car stopped shortly after the stage. Wilson and co-driver Michael Orr tried in vane to restart the Focus WRC, but had to admit defeat.

Although Wilson had completed all of Friday's stages, his inability to get back to service meant that he incurred the same five minute time penalty that he would have received had he retired in the last stage.

Prior to the failure, Wilson had driven superbly on his Cyprus debut. The teenager steadily moved up from his early 11th place to sixth, and although his progress was assisted by attrition, Wilson was keeping Chris Atkinson's works Subaru in sight.

"I knew as soon as I saw the lights flashing and there was nothing happening that it was pretty serious," said Wilson.

"It's just so disappointing. It would have been great to be sixth overall tonight.

"But I'm happy with how I drove. I was consistent and we didn't spin or get out of shape on the stages.

"At least I know we'll have a good car for tomorrow and I'll keep pushing."

Wilson's teammate Juan Pablo Raies retired from the leg with exactly the same problem. He had been running 15th on his World Rally Championship debut.

The third Stobart Ford of Luis Perez Companc has now moved into the points in eighth after Wilson's penalty.

Revised leading positions after leg one:

Pos  Driver         Make              Time
 1.  Gronholm       Ford        1h 45:33.6
 2.  Loeb           Citroen          + 6.4
 3.  Hirvonen       Ford          + 1:25.1
 4.  Stohl          Peugeot       + 1:50.7
 5.  Atkinson       Subaru        + 3:01.0
 6.  Pons           Citroen       + 4:05.2
 7.  Gardemeister   Citroen       + 4:05.3
 8.  Perez Companc  Ford          + 5:22.9
 9.  H Solberg      Peugeot       + 7:32.1
10.  Wilson         Ford          + 8:22.4
11.  P Solberg      Subaru        + 8:35.7
12.  Al Attiyah     Subaru        + 8:38.0
13.  Nutahara       Mitsubishi    + 9:03.7
14.  Sordo          Citroen      + 11:24.9
15.  Teiskonen      Subaru       + 12:47.1
16.  Burkart        Mitsubishi   + 13:16.1
17.  Al Qassimi     Subaru       + 13:27.3
18.  Campedelli     Mitsubishi   + 16:18.0
19.  Phillippou     Subaru       + 16:47.8
20.  Pamboukka      Subaru       + 17:41.0