Frustration for Skoda at the Tour de Corse.

There was further disappointment for Skoda Motorsport during the final day of the Rally of Corsica, with the most experienced driver on the team, Kenneth Eriksson retiring at the start of stage 14.

Meanwhile the two remaining Octavia WRCs of Toni Gardemeister/Paavo Lukander and Roman Kresta/Jan Tomanek finished the rally safely in 12th and 14th position overall.

On the final leg of the rally, the third event of the World Rally Championship, the weather improved and crews raced 112 competitive km in bright sunshine over the final four stages south of the rally HQ in Ajacccio.

Finns Toni Gardemeister and Paavo Lukander put in the strongest performance of the team, including running 10th fastest through the final stage of the rally.

Gardemeister said: "We made some good tyre choices today, so that helped. But it was still not perfect and I was concerned that on the last stage we seemed to develop some problems with the differentials and the car started slipping a bit on the corners. But I am pleased that the Octavia WRC is better than it was in Monte, but we can't just make small improvements, we need to keep building on getting faster. But from some of our split times here in Corsica, you can see that there is potential."

Double Czech Champion Roman Kresta, who was making his debut in Corsica, posted some reasonable times although during Leg two he had a run of bad luck with his tyres, including suffering a double puncture into stage 11.

The 25 year old said: "I am pleased to have finally finished an event of a World Rally Championship. After yesterday I drove very cautiously. I had no idea how difficult it was here in Corsica. The Octavia WRC was performing well, but during the last stage we began to feel some vibrations so we need to look into that."

Kresta, who is sharing the car with former World Champion Stig Blomqvist, will next compete for Skoda Motorsport at the Rally of Cyprus [April 18-21].

Skoda's most experienced driver Kenneth Eriksson was dogged by bad luck from the start of the rally and his misfortune continued into the last day when he suffered a puncture in the first stage. Then as he started stage 14 the Octavia WRC had a problem with the gearbox and he was forced to retire.

He explained: "We rolled about 50 metres into the stage but we simply could not go any further. It has been a frustrating rally for us, but we must now look ahead to Spain and put in some real work on the car."

Skoda Motorsport Team Principal Pavel Janeba concluded: "What we have gained here is a clearer idea of what areas we need to work on within the car, ready for Spain. We do not have much time, but I hope that we can work on the electronics and set up so that during the optimisation test next week we can make some progress. I am disappointed that the gap between us and the other manufacturers was so great, so we need to work on our competitiveness. I am concerned that the Octavia WRC lost some of the settings we had made from the tests in Corsica, so we did not have the best settings for the event itself. But I am pleased that Roman [Kresta] finished the rally, because he needed to build on his confidence."

Meanwhile at the front of the field the Corsican event was dominated by Peugeot, who managed a clean sweep of the top three positions virtually from the start and for winner Gilles Panizzi who had also won here in 2000.

For the first two legs the event was relatively drama free, except for the retirement of Tommi Makinen (Subaru) who aquaplaned in stage 10 and broke his suspension. But it was a double disappointment for Ford on the final day, when Francois Duval (Ford), left the road in stage 14 after bursting a tyre, shortly followed by team mate Colin McRae, who left the road in the following stage.

The next competition for the Skoda Motorsport World Rally Team will be the Rally of Catalunya [March 21-24].