Top drivers slam superspecial ‘mudbath’

Heavy rain had turned the rallycross circuit into a mudbath: cars were caked within metres of the start, a watersplash turned into a mudsplash and the top seeds were forced to run more than 10 seconds per kilometre off their optimum pace.

"If we ever want rallying to be credible, then they've got to stop organisers forcing us to do things like that," fumed Burns. "You can't be credible in a mudbath - you can't perform.

"All they're [the organisers] doing is lining their own pockets. I'd say the same if I'd been fastest. It was no use to anybody."

An estimated 40,000 tickets had been sold for the rally-opening test, but with the stage running in darkness and cars virtually impossible to identify under a layer of slime, the event quickly descended into fiasco.

"It wasn't much fun for anyone," added Ford's Colin McRae. "The conditions were really hard and I'm not sure it's going to get better."

Tomorrow sees nine more stages completing leg one. But with drivers already complaining of muddy conditions on the recce and three stages set to be run twice, more problems could be expected tomorrow.