SS1, Cuttoli: Panizzi avoids trouble

The French asphalt event kicked off with the Cuttoli stage of just 17.4km. It may have been short, but it was also filled with incident.

Hot favourite heading into the rally Philippe Bugalski managed to put his Citroen Xsara T4 into a wall just one mile into the opening test forcing him into immediate retirement.

The drama didn't stop there as Toshio Arai contrived to roll his Subaru Impreza after only five miles. The Japanese wound up on his roof and he too was out, notching up his second early retirement in consecutive events.

The rest of the frontrunners managed to stay out of trouble. Jesus Puras was third in the second Citroen with Francois Delecour fourth fastest as the second non Peugeot driver in the top five. Didier Auriol was just behind in the in the third 206 WRC.

To continue the Peugeot theme, Richard Burns, who has signed to join the French team next year, set the sixth fastest time just ahead of his Subaru team mate Petter Solberg. The Norwegian was suffering from a damper problem and finished just 1.2s behind Burns.

Carlos Sainz was eighth while Ford team mate and championship leader Colin McRae was one spot behind in ninth. The Scot managed to finish just 0.2s adrift of the Spaniard despite making contact with something hard enough to buckle the right rear wheel of his Focus WRC.

Mitsubishi's Tommi Makinen, who shares the title lead, was three places behind McRae with Markko Martin and Neal Wearden separating the two championship protagonists.

The last of the drama was caused by Alister McRae who got to the end of the first stage in 14th place albeit with one of the front brake calipers of his Hyundai Accent WRC in flames. Freddy Loix was delayed down in 13th place with a puncture.

For full times from SS1, click here.

For full rally live timings, click here.

For rally itinerary, click here.

For full entry list, click here.