After the high of a podium finish in the last round of the WRC in Japan, Chris Atkinson was brought down to earth with a bump when a clutch 🀅problem forced him out of leg one of Rallye de France - Tour de Corse after the opening stage.

Atkinson had been 16th quickest through the opening 32.89km Ampaza - Col St Eustache stage before the problem emerged on the road section🐽 that tooᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚk the crews to stage two, and with no time to fix the issue, Atkinson was forced to withdraw.

He will howe𝄹ve𓄧r restart on Saturday's second leg under SupeRally rules.

"Yesterday's shakedown was𒁏 the first time I had driven on tarmac since Germany but despite only completing three runs over a short stage I was feeling comfortable behind the wheel," he said. "The aim for today was to simply get back into the groove and feel my way. During the opening stage I took it pretty easy but I was quite happy with the time I set as it was just on a second per kilometre behind the time set by my team-mate Petter Solberg.

"After completing the opening stage theඣ clutch began to slip on the transport section a🌠nd it got very bad and we weren't able to fix it in time before the next stage forcing us to withdraw from the opening leg."