Corsica ERC: Bryan Bouffier clinches victory from Jan Kopecky

Bouffier's maiden European Rally Championship win was his first top-level success since his shock Monte victory two years ago.

It also marked the first international rally win for Peugeot since Thierry Neuville won the Sanremo round of the 2011 Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

Bouffier went into the final afternoon in a close battle with ERC championship leader Jan Kopecky's Skoda, which had surged back into contention just before lunchtime service after a morning in which Bouffier had edged clear.

But Bouffier swiftly broke Kopecky's challenge, the Delta Peugeot's pace on SS10 convincing the factory Skoda man to settle for second and protect his points lead.

Even if Kopecky had wanted to fight, his Skoda chose not to allow it - dropping onto three cylinders on the last stage and leaving the Czech with a nervous run to the official finish.

Craig Breen had dominated the first half of leg one, only to fall to sixth when he made a mistake and picked up a puncture.

He looked like he might be able to battle back into the lead fight before a further error on Saturday morning.

After that he became embroiled in a dice with Stephane Sarrazin for third.

Sarrazin, driving the same Mini that Dani Sordo used to win this rally in 2012, took time to get up to speed in his first rally since September last year.

But by the deciding loop the Toyota Le Mans driver was firmly on the pace and was able to defeat Breen and claim the final podium spot despite the Peugeot protege's best efforts.

Francois Delecour held off a late challenge from Julien Maurin for fifth.

Robert Kubica had initially picked up the lead from Breen following the Irishman's error, only for a fuel-feed problem to force his Citroen out of the rally just one stage later.

Leading finishers:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1. Bryan Bouffier        Delta Peugeot        2h41m58.2s
 2. Jan Kopecky           Skoda                + 39.8s
 3. Stephane Sarrazin     First Mini           + 1m37.6s
 4. Craig Breen           Sainteloc Peugeot    + 1m40.8s
 5. Francois Delecour     Kronos Peugeot       + 3m25.0s
 6. Julien Maurin         Ford                 + 3m37.6s
 7. Andreas Aigner        Stohl Subaru         + 7m53.9s
 8. Jean-Mathieu Leandri  Sainteloc Peugeot    + 8m47.8s
 9. Germain Bonnefis      Renault              + 9m16.8s
10. Jean Michel Raoux     Delta Peugeot        + 13m54.3s