Dani Sordo finished Day 1 of the 2016 Tour de Corse – Rallye de France in ninth place.
The #4 Hyundai driver was on course to repeat his podium finish previously in Germany, holding onto third for the first three stages.
However, a late puncture on SS4, lost the Spaniard almost two minutes, leaving Sordo on the edge of the top ten in ninth.
Sordo said post-Day 1 in Corsica “It’s been far from a good start to the rally for us. I didn’t have a good feeling in the first stage this morning but we had a decent time.
“It was then the opposite in stage two; I felt good in the car but the time was not there. We also had some issues with the brakes, the same as some other drivers. We wanted to make improvements in the afternoon loop and to consolidate our top-three position.
“Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible because we had a rear puncture in the first half of the final stage, so we had to stop to change tyre. We lost nearly two minutes of time as a result which has dropped us down the classification. We will try to make up ground tomorrow and see what we can pick up.”