Sanremo Rally: Citroen's hopes for victory take a dive

Puras came to grief on the longest stage of the day, the 25km Molini run. "I was 10km into the second stage and there was a right-hand corner," the Spaniard explained. "I went in too fast and I hit the left rear suspension. It was too badly damaged to continue."

He was philosphical about the crash. "These things happen," he said. "When you want to win a rally, when you want to win against good drivers and cars, you have to go to your limits. I went over mine."

To make matters worse for the French manufacturer, Bugalski retired on the next stage. Having crashed and lost 45 seconds on the Molini section, Bugalski then suffered a fuel pump failure on Perinaldo.

The double blow to Citroen only leaves the inexperienced Sebastien Loeb to take the fight to Peugeot. "Sebastien's a good driver and he's doing good times," said Bugalski in support.

Peugeot's Gilles Panizzi holds a commanding 35 second lead over team mate Didier Auriol as they head into the fourth stage of the day. Loeb has slipped behind Auriol to third.

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