Sébastien Ogier retired from the opening day of the Tour de Corse - Rallye de France when his car’s gear shift system failed en route to the overnight parc ferme in Bastia this evening.
The Frenchman was 64km into the 74km road section from the service park in Corte to the overnight halt when his Volkswagen Polo R stopped.
Volkswagen engineers talked to Ogier on the telephone to try and cure the problem, but later retired the car for the day.
The car will be brought back to Corte for repairs before Ogier makes another attempt at the journey.
Ogier was in tenth position at the end of Friday’s stages, but the 10 minute penalty for retirement drops him to 55th.