The second leg of the Rallye de France - Tour de Corse consisted of six more all-asphalt special stages, run as two loops of three with service in the Corsican capital at midday.

The stages were generally more bumpy and narrow than those contested during the opening loop, allowing Suzuki's engineers to concentrate on another important aspect of the SX4 WRC's asphalt development today. Plenty of useful information was gained about suspension and damper settings, thanks also to some valuable feedback from the driving crew of Nicolas Bernardi and Jean-Marc Fortin.

The Suzuki SX4 WRC re-started leg two of the rally under the super rally system, in order to continue the testing and development campaign that is being carried out on the demanding asphalt roads of Corsica.

It had no problems at all during the opening loop of three stages, posting some encouraging times just outside the top 10 - even though Bernardi was under strict instructions not to push.

After service in Ajaccio, competitors headed out for a repeat of the stages in the afternoon. Unfortunately Bernardi was forced to stop after SS10 because of a broken fuel injector, and the SX4 WRC was recovered to the service park. There, the team's engineers were able to analyse the unforeseen problem and re-prepare the car for the final day of the rally tomorrow.

Suzuki World Rally Team driver Nicolas Bernardi has been growing in confidence with more time behind the wheel of the SX4 WRC, but he fulfilled the team's request to concentrate exclusively on testing.

He said: "We're basically learning more with every kilometre. We've not had so much running on asphalt, so this is a valuable opportunity to develop the car further. I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow's stages, which are more traditional Corsica Rally stages from the past."

The team made excellent progress in developing the SX4 WRC for bumpy asphalt today.

Nobuhiro Tajima, Team Principal of the Suzuki World Rally Team, commented: "It's been another very educational day, which was quite different to the opening day. We gained plenty of experience, and we will continue to do so tomorrow. The problem with the fuel injector was unusual, but it is not serious and easily fixed: this is all part of the learning process. Nicolas did another excellent job for us today, and I believe that the team as a whole is working very well together."