Skoda consistent but slow.

The Skoda Motorsport World Rally team has continued to show a consistent performance over the second day of the third event of the World Rally Championship, the Rally of Corsica.

In spite of a dramatic change in the weather, which saw most stages run in steady rain and all the roads damp and slippery, the team brought all three Octavia WRCs back safely to the overnight halt.

Crews Toni Gardemeister/Paavo Lukander are in 14th position overall, while Kenneth Eriksson/Tina Thorner are in 16th and Roman Kresta/Jan Tomanek, who are in 17th position.

Over the longest day of the whole rally, drivers raced a total of 154.83 competitive km concentrated in the mountains north of the rally HQ in Ajaccio. After an initially cloudy but dry start, the rain moved in and drivers either competed in persistent drizzle or, if they were unlucky, sudden heavy downpours.

Finn Toni Gardemeister, 26, again put in the best performance within the team, including posting the tenth fastest time over stage 10, the 10,66 km long Gare de Carbuccia - Gare d'Ucciani, in spite of the rain.

He said: "I hate the rain, I only like sunshine, but luckily we made some reasonable tyre choices. There was a lot of water on the stages today, parts of stage 10 were completely flooded and the car was actually floating. I am reasonably pleased with Leg 2, but I just wish that we had made a better tyre choice for the first stage of the day. We could have then made better times."

Skoda Motorsport's Roman Kresta, 25, despite early nerves about the challenge of Corsica, settled into the rally and put in some reasonable times. However he suffered problems with one tyre rim in stage 10 and was forced to change a tyre after time control incurring a four minute time penalty. Then approaching stage 11, he suffered a double puncture, which slowed him in the stage and further delayed his arrival at the start of stage 12.

He explained: "After stage 10 I had to change the tyre to deal with the rim problem. Then on my way to the next stage, I was overtaking a car on the liaison section and I hit some small stones on the road. Both left hand tyres were punctured, which slowed me down quite a bit."

Unfortunately Kenneth Eriksson, who was yesterday dogged by problems with his tyres, reported no great change in his fortune. After stage 11 he had to stop the car to repair a cooling hose from the brakes, which had worked loose.

The 45 year old added: "I was also concerned with the centring of the Octavia WRC. For the first three stages of the day it just felt less than optimal. We need know to find out how to make it feel better."

Skoda Motorsport's Team Principal Pavel Janeba concluded: "We have to accept that Corsica is not our rally. But I am pleased that all three cars are back safely and I was pleased that Tony was faster than yesterday. We will see what tomorrow will bring."

Day two of the rally and the field has been thinned by 18 retirements including Tommi Makinen (Subaru), who was in fourth place overall before he left the road during stage 10, hit a rock and destroyed his suspension.

The third and final day of the rally will see teams racing a total of 112 competitive km over two longer stages to the south of Ajaccio. The winning car is expected on the ramp at around 14.30 local time.