Subaru hopes are hit before it even begins!

Martin's retirement comes just a day after team boss David Lapworth said the squad would be 'sticking its neck out' and taking more technical risks this season.

The cars left Monte Carlo this morning and had a 120km road section to a service before the first special stage at Roquesteron (10:03 local time; 09:03 GMT), but Martin was forced to pull onto the central reservation of an autoroute 50km from the service.

The Estonian said he saw wisps of smoke in the cabin at a motorway toll booth, but carried on until the car spluttered for 6km and finally stopped and died. A spectating Juha Kankkunen, who was among the first on the scene, believes the car lost a piston.

"I thought it couldn't be any worse than Rally Australia, but it can," said a distraught Martin, who retired on last year's Oz event after just one special stage.

Martin had been nominated for manufacturers' championship points alongside team-leader Richard Burns, making it a double blow for Subaru's season-opening hopes.

After the re-seeding of the manufacturer entries, Marcus Gronholm is first on the road for today's leg one, with Burns second and Colin McRae fourth.


1 Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot)
2 Richard Burns (Subaru)
3 Carlos Sainz (Ford)
4 Colin McRae (Ford)
5 Tommi Makinen (Mitsubishi)
6 Francois Delecour (Ford)
7 Gilles Panizzi (Peugeot)
8 Petter Solberg (Subaru)
9 Didier Auriol (Peugeot)
10 Freddy Loix (Mitsubishi)
11 Armin Schwarz (Skoda)
12 Bruno Thiry (Skoda)
13 Markko Martin (Subaru)
14 Pierro Liatti (Hyundai)
15 Alister McRae (Hyundai)
16 Toni Gardemeister (Peugeot)