Sarrazin roll completes tough day for Subaru.

There was more misfortune for Subaru as Rally Catalunya moved through the sixth and final stage of leg one, with St?phane Sarrazin looking a certainty for retirement after rolling.

The Frenchman, who was enjoying a solid run to that point, ran wide at a long right-hand bend just over 16km into the stage and clipped the side of the road. The car rolled and caught fire, and was badly damaged by the time it could be rescued. As a result, the Impreza looks set to be retired from the rally.

"I started to spin at the end of a long fifth gear corner on stage six," Sarrazin revealed, "I thought I had caught it, but then the car went off so quickly I think it may have clipped something.

"The car bounced at the rear and landed off the road damaged and unable to continue. About fifteen minutes later, the gorse caught fire, probably from the hot exhaust and then very quickly the whole car went up. It's really disappointing as my performance was increasing, I had good pace and the car felt easy. My confidence was growing and now I'm just sorry I'm stopped and we won't be going any further."

Sarrazin and co-driver Denis Giraudet escaped unhurt from the incident, which was the second major blow to be suffered by the Subaru team in the day. Team-mate Petter Solberg also clipped a bank, this time on SS3, badly damaging the steering on his car.

"Today has been quite difficult," SWRT technical director David Lapworth admitted, "On the one hand, the car has performed well and we have continued to show some impressive pace. On the other hand, the changeable weather has made for some difficult tyre choices for the team.

"Both Petter and St?phane had unfortunate accidents, but we all acknowledge when pushing hard that mistakes are possible and the main thing is that the crews are both fine.

"It has also been a real challenge for Chris [Atkinson] today with such limited experience having to drive in these conditions. However, by the end of the day, he is already achieving the pace target we agreed before the rally. Petter will be back tomorrow and we're going to take the opportunity to do some testing and try some ideas in real rally conditions."