Kimi Raikkonen has joined fellow Citroen DS3 WRC driver Sebastien Loeb on the official retirements list from the Rally of France - the Finn is on his way home to Geneva after his road accident this morning.

Raikkonen was sidelined with suspension damage after he hit the back of Henning Solberg's Ford Fiesta RS WRC on the way to stage three. The team says the damage could have been repaired, but it was felt there was no point when the penalties would have ruled out any chance of a top result.

Team manager Benoit Nogier said: "It's over, Kimi has gone [home]. The damage was not so bad, but he preferred to stop. That's it. This is very disappointing."

Nogier added that Raikkonen's early pace on the Alsace event, running inside the top 10, was looking positive for the rest of the rally.

"We could have made a good result here," he said. "The times on the first stages were good."

Raikkonen will contest the final two rounds of the World Rally Championship in Spain and Britain as expected. source