Although he was forced to retire from Wales Rally GB, Alister McRae said the debut of the new Toyota Super 2000R in the WRC was 'extremely encouraging'.

McRae posted four fastest stage times in Group N – the category the car will compete in from 2007 - over the course of three days of difficult competition in the Welsh forests as the RED World Rally Team made significant progress in adapting to the changing and challenging conditions.

After the ceremonial start at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Thursday evening, the event began with three stages on wet roads after a night of heavy rain. McRae and co-driver Gordon Noble began the event by settling into the driving style required for the new car and posted times similar to the midfield of the Group N pack.

However, in the first of the afternoon's stages, a puncture led to a loss of time as Group N cars are not allowed to run anti-deflation mousse – forcing McRae to take it easy as his only spare was now flat.

The second day again dawned wet with McRae feeling that the engine in the Toyota was lacking, but adjustments at the mid-day service led to immediate improvement. On the first of the afternoon's stages, the Scot set the second-fastest time in Group N and then went one better on the Epynt stage, setting the fastest time in the class.

However, the elation would be short-lived, as on the penultimate stage of the day, one of the car's suspension joints failed, leading to a driveshaft being pulled out of the front differential and forcing the Toyota out of the leg.

The pace shown on the second day was again apparent as the McRae returned to action on leg three under the SupeRally rules. He went quickest of the Group N runners on the first run through both Brechfa and Trawscoed and made it a hat-trick on the return run through Brechfa in the afternoon. However, on the final stage, McRae missed a braking point on the slippery mud and slid off the road and although the car was undamaged he wasn't able to get it back onto the road and was forced to retire.

“I feel the event has gone very well, especially when you consider it's the car's first outing in the WRC and we carried out less than two days pre-event testing,” McRae said on his return to service. “The changes we made on the second leg clearly worked well and the four stage wins are testament to the potential of the Toyota Super 2000R.

“The small problem we had on Saturday was completely unexpected and we've identified and rectified it already, so I am confident that won't reoccur. The objective for this weekend was to get as many miles as possible on the car to learn about it's pace and behaviour on gravel and I feel we've done just that. Of course it is disappointing not to get the result that I feel we all deserve, after the effort that has gone into it but overall, I'm pleased with the weekend.