McRae crashes out as Peugeot claim top three

Colin McRae's unfortunate record on Corsica continued yesterday when the Scottish driver skidded off the road in the penultimate stage as Gilles Panizzi won the Corsica Rally in dominant fashion for Peugeot.

McRae's Ford Focus collided into a tree after hitting a patch of mud, leaving him stunned and with a broken ring finger on his left hand. It brought back memories of his crash on the same event two years ago when he was trapped upside down in his car with fuel dripping on to him for 45 minutes.

Although the stage was stopped, McRae was able to climb from the wreckage and went to hospital for a precautionary check-up. Initial reports suggest he will be fine to compete in Catalonia in 10 days' time.

Panizzi confirmed his start-to-finish victory in Corsica at the head of an impressive Peugeot performance. The French team took the top three places and now lead the Manufacturers' Championship by a comfortable 16-point margin.

With a maximum of 16 points available from any one event it means that, whatever happens in Catalonia, Peugeot will continue to head the table. Their drivers held station over Sunday's four stages, Marcus Gronholm ending the event second with world champion Richard Burns third.

Gronholm has extended his championship lead over Tommi Makinen, now tied with Panizzi and Carlos Sainz, who took the final point on offer today after McRae's demise. The Scot's accident also brought younger brother Alister into the top 10 for the first time after a difficult event in the still under-developed Mitsubishi Lancer.

Other retirements included Ford's newcomer Francois Duval, who left the road after running on a puncture and Kenneth Eriksson, whose Skoda suffered differential failure after the day's first stage.

In the Production Car (Group N) category, British champion Martin Rowe ended the event fourth overall in his Mitsubishi. It was a remarkable showing in that he got among four of the latest Evo 7 versions which are far more suited to the demands of asphalt rallying thanks to their much-improved suspension geometry.

The championship contenders now switch to Spain where fans are certain to come out in their numbers to cheer on Sainz, the local hero.