Kimi Raikkonen said a misheard pace note was to blame for his crash out of Rally Japan on this morning's opening stage.
The former Formula 1 World Champion had been running eighth overall in his Citroen Junior Team C4 WRC when he went off just over halfway through the Bisan test. His co-driver Kaj Lindstrom explained the situation, saying: "Kimi misheard a pace note call and we were a little bit too fast into the corner. The engine stalled, we ran wide and slipped off the road and down a bank.
"There was no chance to come back to the road because there were no spectators around – it's a really disappointing end to the event, particularly after Kimi had made no mistakes for the first two days."
Petter Solberg continues to lead the event overall after the morning's opening test. Ford's Mikko Hirvonen has dropped a place to Sebastien Ogier, the Finn complaining of a gearbox problem in the stage.