SS12 Perinaldo 2: Panizzi makes sure

The Frenchman, who won this event last year, took 7m41.6s to complete the 12.16km section and has a 34.5s lead going into leg three.

Indeed it was a French one-two-three on Perinaldo, with Didier Auriol and Sebastien Loeb setting the second and third fastest times on the stage. Loeb keeps the gap between himself and Auriol to seven seconds in the battle for second, finishing just four tenths shy of the Peugeot driver's time.

Marcus Gronholm was fourth fastest, with Carlos Sainz in the Ford recovering from his blip on SS11B to take the fifth fastest stage time. Renato Travaglia, the man who's just four seconds behind Sainz in the battle for fifth, finished sixth, with privateer Simone Jean-Joseph next up in seventh.

Ford pairing Colin McRae and Francois Delecour were eighth and ninth fastest, and Delecour found himself one place up the leaderboard at the end of the stage when Petter Solberg had a close encounter with the Italian countryside on SS12. The Norwegian lost over a minute on Perinaldo and moves down to eighth overall.

Tommi Makinen's Mitsubishi Lancer WRC rounded out the top 10 times.

For SS12 Perinaldo 2, click here.

For full live timings table click here.

For full entry list click here.

For the itinerary click here.