Wilson surprised by his own speed

The 19-year-old Stobart Ford driver was not impressed with his performance in the day's final stage, yet he was quicker than rally leader Sebastien Loeb at the first split, and within 14 seconds of Loeb and Petter Solberg's times through the complete stage.

"I felt like I drove worse in that stage that at any time on the rally so far," Wilson told autosport.com. "The feeling in the car was the worst it had been.

"But it just goes to show that sometimes when you're really neat and tidy it can pay off."

The La Cumbre 1 stage was one of the twistiest of the rally, and there was a suspicion that its nature favoured the pre-2006 cars that are still fitted with equipment such as active differentials.

Manfred Stohl and Gigi Galli were first and second quickest through the stage in their 2005 Peugeot 307s, ahead of Loeb and Solberg's new, but non-active, machines. Wilson is driving a 2004 vintage Ford Focus, so potentially received the same boost.