SS15, Collsesplanes 1: Bugalski stung by penalty

Once Bugalski's Citroen got going he flew through the stage 5.1s quicker than Auriol's Peugeot, but was handed the two minute penalty for starting late, which drops him to fourth overall.

The battle for what has become second place overall between Gilles Panizzi and Tommi Makinen continues to go Panizzi's way. The Frenchman's Peugeot was second fastest over the stage and Makinen's Mitsubishi was third.

Further back it was "as you were" for the third stage on the trot as Carlos Sainz, thought to be suffering a tyre problem with his Ford Focus, dropped from fifth to sixth. Freddy Loix (Mitsubishi) did his old seventh-to-fifth-place trick again, and Francois Delecour (Ford) slipped out of the points to seventh, after picking up a 10-second penalty for jumping the stage start.

With only eighth fastest time over this long (26.28km) stage, thanks to skidding wide on some gravel and clouting the Armco barrier, Subaru's Richard Burns is now running out of time in his quest for a points finish. He has just 59.2km of stage running to make up 22 seconds to sixth-placed Sainz, who suffered a puncture on SS15.


Philippe Bugalski, Citroen, 16m28.0s (+2min penalty)
Gilles Panizzi, Peugeot, 16m30.1s
Tommi Makinen, Mitsubishi, 16m32.9s
Didier Auriol, Peugeot, 16m33.1s
Freddy Loix, Mitsubishi, 16m37.9s
Francois Delecour, Ford, 16m37.9s (+10sec penalty)


Didier Auriol, Peugeot, 3hr02m57.3s
Gilles Panizzi, Peugeot, +29.9s
Tommi Makinen, Mitsubishi, +57.9s
Philippe Bugalski, Citroen, +1m30.0s
Freddy Loix, Mitsubishi, + 2m30.0s
Carlos Sainz, Ford, +2m15.3s
Francois Delecour, Ford, +2m25.0s
Richard Burns, Subaru, +2m37.3s
Simon Jean-Joseph, Peugeot, +3m58.9s
Bruno Thiry, Skoda, +5m09.1s