The Westouter route might be the shortest of the rally, but its design includes very tricky portions, a jump, and even the occasional WWI bomb craters to navigate pass. The stage saw two competitors withdraw in surprising fashion.

Overall tenth-placed Brice Tirabassi had no choice but to retire after his Peugeot made such hard contact with a hole in the road that the suspension violently broke through the bonnet, and it appears that Hungarian driver Janos Toth retired as well, also with a suspension taken apart by a hole.

For such a short distance, stage winner Nicolas Vouilloz nontheless took 3:31.4 to drive his Peugeot 207 to the finish line, with teammate Freddy Loix right behind. Closer still, third-placed Luca Rossetti brought his Peugeot 0:00.2 close to the Belgian's car.

Patrick Snijer's Peugeot reached the fourth spot. Dani Sola's Abarth Grande Punto and the MG driven by Mark Higgins tied for fifth place (Higgins' best result so far). Bernd Casier was seventh-quickest on this tricky stage.

Rounding off the top ten, we find the Abarth Grande Puntos of Giandomenico Basso and Renato Travaglia, followed by Luca Betti's Peugeot S2000.

The time gap between rally leader Freddy Loix and Nicolas Vouilloz presently stands at exactly 20 seconds. Bernd Casier holds on to third place overall, but Giandomenico Basso continues to fight only 0:00.8 close. 12.4 seconds further down, Patrick Snijers could be nearing the fight as well, while sixth-placed Luca Rossetti continues to push forward.

Watou 1 is next on the programme.