Atkinson forced out early in Corsica.

After the high of a podium finish in the last round of the WRC in Japan, Chris Atkinson was brought down to earth with a bump when a clutch problem forced him out of leg one of Rallye de France - Tour de Corse after the opening stage.

Atkinson had been 16th quickest through the opening 32.89km Ampaza - Col St Eustache stage before the problem emerged on the road section that took the crews to stage two, and with no time to fix the issue, Atkinson was forced to withdraw.

He will however restart on Saturday's second leg under SupeRally rules.

"Yesterday's shakedown was the first time I had driven on tarmac since Germany but despite only completing three runs over a short stage I was feeling comfortable behind the wheel," he said. "The aim for today was to simply get back into the groove and feel my way. During the opening stage I took it pretty easy but I was quite happy with the time I set as it was just on a second per kilometre behind the time set by my team-mate Petter Solberg.

"After completing the opening stage the clutch began to slip on the transport section and it got very bad and we weren't able to fix it in time before the next stage forcing us to withdraw from the opening leg."