Petter Solberg and Gigi Galli out

The repeat pass of the longest stage of day, SS6, led to the retirements of Petter Solberg and Gigi Galli.

Solberg had been lying fifth before the 20km stage but was forced to stop after a damper broke on his Subaru Impreza WRC2007.

“We hit a rock with the left-hand front wheel and the right-hand damper exploded,” said a baffled Solberg. “We had to stop because the leaking damper oil caused a small fire.”

After putting out the fire Solberg completed the stage but the damage was too serious for him to tackle the two remaining tests and he retired on the road section to SS7.

Gigi Galli of the Stobart Ford team retired from seventh after damaging the rear of his Ford Focus. Galli finished the stage without the spare wheel which is normally secured behind the back bumper. “We struck something on the rear and I saw the wheel rolling away - maybe it wasn’t fixed in well,” said Galli. “It’s not good though, I’m not enjoying the stages.”

Unbeknown to him at the time, the impact had broken the rear-mounted differential cooler on his car and this brought about his retirement before SS7.

Both drivers are expected to restart the rally on Saturday.